Harry Potter: A New Universe
by PS.95
Summary: At the Department of Mysteries, Harry chases Bellatrix after Sirius falls through the veil, but a complex magic triggers, transporting him and an 'alive' Sirius to a muggle dimension consisting of superheroes and what not...Follow Harry as he fights together with Sirius and the Avengers, hoping to save the world and get back to his own universe.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter or Marvel characters. I am just borrowing them for my pleasure, and no money is being made off this.

* * *

**Harry Potter: A New Universe**

Summary: Set at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Takes place after the battle at Department of Mysteries. Harry runs after Bellatrix after Sirius falls through the veil, but a complex magic triggers, wrapping around his body, transporting him to a muggle dimension consisting of superheroes and many similar astonishing things. The important thing; his godfather is alive! Follow Harry as he fights together with Sirius and the Earth's Mightiest Heroes to protect the world from the Chitauri invasion, while trying to find a way to get back to his own dimension.

Rated: **T**

Thoughts- 'Expecto Patronum'

Spells- "_Expecto Patronum"_

Flashback/Disjoint scene- **Expecto Patronum**

**Prologue**

* * *

**The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead. And our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his. The universe yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?**

"Harry - no!" cried Lupin, but Harry had already ripped his arm from Lupin's slackened grip. "SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" bellowed Harry. "SHE KILLED HIM I'LL KILL HER!"

And he was off, scrambling up the stone benches; people were shouting behind him but he did not care. (Taken from Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix)

He felt tears threatening to spill, with only anger and revenge stopping them from flowing down his cheeks. He cried, "_STUPEFY_" but it missed. Bellatrix was already at the end of the corridor, and then he felt a disturbance, as if someone had popped a soda bottle across the air. He looked back, still running and saw the veil fluttering ominously. He wanted to stop, a sudden hope spreading through his body that there was a tiny chance that Sirius was alive, but he didn't.

With a loud whoosh the whole air around him became solid, and he felt a force on his body dragging him back. He pressed his feet hard on the floor, forced to his knees as the strange power continued to drag him. Slowly, his heart filled with emotion as the thoughts of Sirius came back and his body relaxed. Strangely, he could hear the phoenix song ringing in his ears, giving him peace and contentment. He wanted nothing more than to sleep and dream of the good times he had in the small period of time he'd known his godfather.

Meanwhile, everyone was in an uproar. First Harry had tried to run after Bellatrix and then he dropped to his knees, and now he was lying peacefully on the floor. Remus Lupin rushed off as soon as he saw the veil flutter, and a pang of sorrow for Sirius overcame him as he knelt besides Harry. The boy smiled dreamily, and a single tear splashed on the cold floor of the Department of Mysteries.

The body of the teen-aged boy started to glow with an unearthly red color. Harry wasn't aware of whatever was happening around him. He just thought of Sirius, his parents, his friends, his teachers. Speaking of teachers, he saw Dumbledore's face swim into view, his face creased with lines of worry. He was vaguely aware of Lupin besides him, frantic because of some reason he didn't know. He could hear people shouting something, but he didn't care. Harry Potter burst into green flames, and was gone beyond the twisted rules of magic.

Hermione shrieked, and Lupin paled considerably, his eyes begging for answers. Dumbledore took off his half moon spectacles, and sat on the floor dejectedly. All the Order members were shocked and the DA members couldn't comprehend what was happening. They had never seen the headmaster so worried.

Lupin shouted, shaking the old man's shoulders. "Where did Harry go? What happened? Damn it Dumbledore say something!"

For a second the piercing blue eyes wavered over the veil, which was swaying from a nonexistent wind. He could hear familiar voices calling, his parents, Ariana...but he turned his gaze away and replied, "There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. The grief for Sirius made Harry unlock this power. Love. Somehow, the magic has transported him to an unknown location."

Lupin was bewildered. "But-but, what power? Harry unlocked it...where could he have gone?"

"Alas, I don't know. This is the most ancient kind of magic. I can detect traces of magic thousands of years old in front of me. This is the magic which had the power to repel the killing curse. It can bend the reality in ways we can't even imagine. The only thing I know, is that Harry is not in our world right now."

"WHAT?" everyone started muttering and speaking at once. Hermione tentatively asked, "But Professor, how can he be not in this world? I mean, the flames were green. Like floo travel, he could be anywhere."

"Why can't it be so, Miss Granger? I suppose you're familiar with the principles of floo travel...yes?"

At her tiny nod, he continued, "The basic requirement is fire, as you know. What we witnessed here was no ordinary way of transportation...the glow that covered his body and the peace on his face suggests only one thing, that my guesses are correct and that was the power...power the Dark Lord knows not." he finished quietly, shutting his eyes.

A moment later all anyone could hear was Lupin's sobs. The man had lost almost everything today. Albus Dumbledore wearily asserted, "Alastor, Nymphadora...get the students back to Hogwarts. I'll meet you in..ah, ten minutes, and we shall discuss something that I should have told Harry four years ago."

With a bang Voldemort strode into the Death Chamber with Bellatrix at his side. His nostrils flared at the sight of his bound Death Eaters, and the slit like eyes narrowed, when he saw everyone but the brat. He sneered, "Got your Golden Boy safely hidden somewhere, Dumbledore?"

"It was foolish of you to come here tonight, Tom. The Aurors are on their way.-" he calmly replied.

"_-_by which time I shall be gone, and you shall be dead."

With a jab of his wand they started to duel, and Dumbledore erected a magical barrier to prevent others from getting into the way. As the first killing curse was dodged by him, a tear slid down his cheeks when he thought that a fifteen year old boy was all alone in an unknown world, with no one to guide him, a place where none of them could reach, despite his prowess in magic.

* * *

**Location: New York, one mile west of SHIELD Central**

Harry's world was spinning. He had no idea what was happening. But as soon as the phoenix song ended his eyes snapped open. He found wind rushing into his face, and with a jolt he realized that he was hurtling through air at neck breaking speed.

"_Aresto Momentum_!"

At once his body became as light as a feather and he floated to the ground. He didn't get up, suddenly the impact of Sirius' death hitting him like a sledgehammer. Sirius was dead, and he had let Bellatrix Lestrange go. He groaned in despair, curling his body into ball and burying his head into his knees. Then he cried, he never cried. But tears flowed freshly as he remembered the shocked expression on his godfather's face, and the gloating smile on Bellatris'x face.

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SO RECKLESS PADFOOT!?"

Suddenly, he felt someone's hand on his shoulders, and heard a voice that he least expected to hear. "What happened, Pup? What did I do?"

His head snapped above, and he ignited his wand as he could see nothing in the darkness. By the thin beam of his wand's light, his gaze fell upon the handome face of Sirius Black...

"What happened Harry? Where are we?"

He shook his head, dry tears still etched on his face. "_EXPELLIARMUS_!"

The impostor Sirius' wand flew out of his hand and he caught it smoothly in his. The Death Eater only looked surprised. He expected him to turn into a masked idiot or a snake faced evil lord. But then, a Death Eater would not have been disarmed so easily. 'No. NO! It's a trick.'

"Harry listen. Calm down."

"Stay away from me Death Eater." he spat.

"Death Eater eh? Not bad for the first attempt to prank your godfather Pup, but honestly it was a lame one."

"WHO ARE YOU?"

He looked hurt and finally assumed a serious look, frowning at him.

"WHO ARE YOU?" he yelled again. "REVEAL YOURSELF. SIRIUS IS D-DEAD."

"I'm not." the man said simply.

He hissed, "Prove it!"

In a second he was gazing on a large black dog, who wagged its tail. He sat down, shocked beyond measure as his wand slipped out of his palm and landed on the grass.

"But. It can't be. I saw you fall through the veil. The Veil of Death."

Sirius turned back into human form, looked abashed and replied sheepishly, "Well, I got a little over confident. I did indeed fall into that accursed veil, and felt like I wanted to sleep, floating blissfully in infinite darkness. Then I heard it. The Phoenix Song."

His curiosity roused, he nodded briskly. "I heard it too. Lupin was trying to restrain me, but I broke free and ran after Bellatr-"

"Harry, are you mad? Why did you run after a psychotic killer? For me? Your life is far more important than sacrificing it for a petty revenge, especially for a mangy dog like me." he ruffled his hair sadly.

He looked down, ashamed, but defiant. "I wanted to kill her." he said quietly. Sirius didn't say anything, but gave a nod motioning him to continue.

"Then suddenly the veil started swaying, and I couldn't move. A force dragged me back, and I resisted, but then I got the same feeling you told. Dumbledore and Lupin were saying something to me, but I didn't hear a thing. The next thing I knew, I was falling down from the sky." he chuckled. His godfather smiled and asked, "I feel that you saved me, Harry."

He gave an incredulous look, at which Sirius laughed. "After my dear cousin stunned me, I fell into infinite darkness. But I felt peaceful. I thought I was dead, and trust me, dying was easier than falling asleep. Then I heard it. The phoenix song."

He nodded, "Me too. It kept on ringing in my ears and I couldn't hear a thing Dumbledore and Lupin were saying."

"Ol' Moony must be devastated right now."

"Yeah, but it's all well that ends well. Let's go back and give him a brilliant surprise."

Sirius grinned, the Marauder in him rising to the surface. "We can give him a good shock. But first things first, where are we? And how did we get here?"

"Dunno." Just then they caught the sound of skidding wheels, and the unmistakable slams of car doors. It was night, so they couldn't see anyone, but they were sure that they were in an uninhabited place, by the natural silence and dark outlines of trees. But that didn't explain the cars. Harry scooped up his wand, holding it tightly and waiting for something to happen.

Unexpectedly, lights flared up all around them, and bright beams focused on the two of them, making spots dance in front of his eyes. He shielded his eyes from the 'spotlight', well, more like a scene he'd seen many time in crime dramas secretly on the television at Dursleys. A determined voice called out, "Put down any weapons you have and surrender. This time you're surrounded. There is no escape!"

Harry blinked at 'this time' and looked over to his godfather, who looked as surprised as he was. Then he mouthed, "Muggles. Police or Army I think."

He began to panic. Muggles were informed that Sirius black was a mass murderer. If they were caught now...

Shadowy shapes outlined the ground, about 30 yards from their position. He nervously said the only thing that came to his mind, "Let's modify their memories." Sirius shook his head, and he gaped. What was he playing at...

Sirius flashed his charming smile, and called out loudly, "What happened, sir? Did we break the law or something, by coming here?"

There was confusion in the air, as Harry could sense it. Then the voice spoke again. "As a matter of fact, yes. This is a prohibited area, and civilians are restricted from entering. How you found your way here is not our concern...surrender and give the location of your master."

"Master? What master? We were just going, by the way."

Harry didn't know what the heck was going around them, and Sirius whispered, "Hold on to me. We need to get away by Side Along Apparition."

A shuffling of feet, and the men came closer. He could tell that there were plenty of them, and somehow, he could feel the nervousness in the group in front of him. They sensed something, and were ready to fire. He pushed Sirius hard and they both fell to the ground as a barrage of bullets rained over them. "_PROTEGO_" Both of them echoed, and the next hundred or so bullets hit the shields they had erected and dropped harmlessly on the ground.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE."

The firing stopped, though hesitantly, and a middle aged man with brown hair, and hazel eyes came closer to them, hands held up lightly, gesturing peace. Harry refused to drop the shield charm, and when the man couldn't come closer due to an invisible force, he spoke calmly, "Considering the fact that you two haven't tried to attack and only defended yourself, I'm going to give you another chance. Who are you? Where did you come from? Who sent you? Do you know anyone by the name of Loki?"

Sirius raised his wand, a stunning spell radiating on its tip but Harry pushed it away, giving a 'calm down' look. He turned to the man, dressed in a simple black suit, and asked, "What place is this?"

The man, who looked like a leader of sorts, sported a bewildered look after that. "Earth." He replied, and somehow Harry knew that he was thinking that they were aliens.

Besides him, Sirius barked in laughter, and replied, "Oh I thought we were on Venus. Of course we're on Earth. I'm asking where on Earth..."

Apparently Sirius' jab was not taken well because they heard the swaps of guns, but their leader put up his hand, and then replied slowly, "You're in a restricted area, about a mile from SHIELD's New York base."

"New York?!" He gaped, and his godfather's eyes grew wider. This was no accidental apparition or something...there was no international portkey involved...this was a tricky bit of magic, done by him!

"Why? Don't you know?" The James Bond style muggle pressed on..."Then why did you come here?"

"No!" they both chorused. "We didn't come on purpose."

"Our trackers recorded a distinct energy surge here, similar to the signature of a...'device' we had, stolen a few hours ago. You have two options. Drop whatever force fields you are creating, lower your...uh, weapons, and come to SHIELD where we can talk in peace."

"Peace?" Sirius snorted. "Yeah sure. Peace."

He spoke in a low voice. "Sirius, if these are Muggles then how did they track our magic? And what is this thing they're talking about? Do you think Voldemort is after any weird artifact, now that the prophecy is destroyed?"

"Can't be. Voldemort is not so fast. This is pure magic, pure energy. Obviously it can be tracked." Sirius whispered back furiously, speaking very fast. "The question is how. I didn't know Muggles had such advanced trackers, even in the US. The Wizengamot was recently worrying themselves about Muggles developing such things in 21st century, but not so soo-"

"Excuse me, I can hear everything, but I can't understand any of the rubbish you're talking about. But for your information, we're in the 21st century, so what exactly do you mean by not so soon? By 2090?"

"WHAT!? Is this not 18th of June, 1996?"

He saw the gears shifting in the man's brain, but a moment later the confusion was replaced by apprehension in his entire body language. He shook his head, almost dramatically.

"Padfoot?" he yelped.

"Yeah Prongslet?"

"We're in big trouble."

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Fall-out Shelter #1**

Harry Potter and Sirius Black nervously walked through dark corridors, flanked by guards on each side. They had decided on revealing some details to whoever was the 'leader of the light' here, keyword being 'some'. A large door with the mysterious eagle logo split apart with a hiss. Bracing themselves, they entered, and found themselves in a large room with a big round table, and a 'majestic' chair, if Harry could give a term to it stood apart from it. The chair was occupied by a man in a trench coat, and the chair revolved, giving them their first look at the man's face.

Sirius snickered when he saw the eye patch, but sobered immediately when the man's eyes hardened, emanating a wave of confidence, anger, and...hurt. Harry didn't know how he could suddenly read everyone's emotion so well, but he'd already put the thought back in his brain into a things-to-investigate list.

"Nicholas Joseph Fury." Every word almost stood out in his mind, not unlike a certain memory of 'Tom Marvolo Riddle'. 'The man must be somewhat proud.' he mused.

The man waved them over to a seat, and when they had made themselves comfortable, directed his cold eyes to the pair of them, scrutinizing them, guessing whether they were dangerous or not.

After a tense hour of explaining, they had told many things about magic to Fury, and left out crucial details, like why did they come traipsing into a restricted area in an unknown universe, and obviously, they'd left Voldemort out of the discussion. For now, all Fury knew was that they had arrived here by an accident.

The grim director of the organization 'SHIELD' didn't believe a thing at first. He asked them repeatedly about some hydra group or something like that, and then kept trying to wheedle out something.

"So, you aren't from any other planet in 'this' universe, sent by Loki under disguise to aid him in conquering Earth?"

Harry shook his head, and Sirius replied sarcastically, "Why not? Wizards come knocking, and except of asking us to produce rabbits from hats, you accuse us of stealing some glowing cube? I would say that it was your fault...bringing us here, I mean. You said that this 'Tesseract' malfunctioned, is not that so?"

Fury sighed, and replied regretfully, "Maybe you're right, travelers. For now I accept your explanation, but I feel that you two are hiding something from me. But until we get back the cube, you're not going anywhere."

That was a hint. Harry knew it. He blurted, "What do you want us to do?"

Fury raised an eyebrow, chuckling softly. "Quick on the uptake, aren't you son?"

He didn't respond. Apparently the reason Fury didn't attack them was because of him being a normal fifteen year old teenager. 'Normal' was too good to be true, but maybe that would work in their favor. Fury continued, "We've got a crazy Norse God bent on world domination, with a cube that holds unlimited power. We are assembling a team of remarkable people-"

"By remarkable you mean?" Sirius interjected.

"Gifted people. With powers, not unlike yours, but less flashy." Fury threw a glance at the glass of water which Sirius had turned into a mouse, and back to convince him about their magical powers. Help us avoid world destruction, and you might find yourself a ticket back to home."

Sirius glanced at him, and he nodded slightly. It was not like they had any choice. His godfather shook hands with the director, and he could only think that 'why do I keep getting myself involved with people trying to achieve world domination. At least this fellow hadn't tried to change his name like Voldy.'

* * *

**(A/N)**: So this idea had been in my mind for some time now...ever since I heard Eric Selvig exclaim "She wants to show us something! A new universe." to Iron Man.

I've read many HP Avengers crossovers, and most of them deal with Harry as a master of death, or years later the end of Voldemort. But I wanted to show Harry here as a teen-aged boy working to save the day, much like Spider-Man. This won't be a Super!Harry...he has unlocked the power of love that Voldemort is too stupid to consider, but he is untrained, and doesn't have it under full control. There will be no pairings as of now, but this may change later. Also, I thought that it would be a nice twist bringing Sirius back. The Tesseract is responsible for it, latching onto Harry's love for his godfather. So I hope Sirius' fans are delighted.

Let me know what you thought of this start. You can of course review if you enjoyed it and want to read more, and you can also PM me and I'll get back to you ASAP. All suggestions and constructive criticism welcomed. Until next time, then...

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Next up, on Harry Potter: A New Universe -

Harry watched Sirius pace in the small room Fury had given them for the time being, saying that they would soon be in some Helicarrier. His godfather would mutter "Dumbledore" every now and then. He felt the same, because Dumbledore always had all the answers. But as much as he wished for it, they were all alone in this strange world.

"Harry, listen. I have a-uh, wait."

"What?"

Sirius raised a finger slightly, and pointed it upwards. He immediately understood. He was aware that there were cameras in the room. Harry nodded mutely, and Sirius waved his wand, muttering, _"Muffliato."_

The former Marauder grinned boyishly, and happily spoke, "Now they can't hear us"

"Whoa- nice spell!"

"Snivellus' creation" Sirius replied disgustedly. "Lily knew, and told James a few months after their marriage, and..."

"-he told you guys." Harry finished. "So what now?"

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P.S- You know what to do. Hit that Review button. :)


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters of Harry Potter and Marvel comics. I'm just borrowing them for my pleasure, and no money is being made off this.

Note- Recognizable sections of this chapter have been taken directly from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but are different from canon.

Spells- Italic

Thoughts- 'Harry'

Flashback, Disjoint Scene- Bold

* * *

Previously on Harry Potter: A New Universe-

Coupled by Harry's grief for Sirius, and a bizarre bit of magic by the Tesseract, Harry and his miraculously alive godfather are transported to a muggle dimension. After a brief encounter with Agent Coulson and the field agents of SHIELD, they get to know that they have also moved years into the future. Directory Fury offers to help them, if they in turn help SHIELD to retrieve the Tesseract.

* * *

**Harry Potter: A New Universe**

**Chapter 1**

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Fallout Shelter #1**

Nick Fury had seen many astonishing things in his life. He'd taken the Infinity serum after being injured in France, seen Steve Rogers come alive after being frozen for 70 years; the list went on. But this beat everything by a significant margin.

Multiverses! His previous opinion on the subject was just that al theories were incomplete, but now that living proof was in front of him, he didn't know what to do. But a part of him knew that if he wanted to protect Earth from Loki's hare-brained schemes, he needed all the help he could get.

"Sir, the Helicarrier systems have been checked and cleared for take off."

He distractedly flipped the Tesseract file in his hand. He didn't want to meet the gaze of Agent Hill. He knew that she was glaring daggers at him. It was the same glare...when he had given the green flag to Phase II.

"Good. Get all the Level 4 agents and above to report as soon as possible. If available, call the best Level 3s also."

He stood up from his chair, feeling her brown eyes on him.

"Sir, I've informed Tony about the situation." Phil Coulson had entered the room.

He was glad to have Coulson come to his rescue, and immediately fell along with him, leaving the debriefing room and a doubtful Maria Hill behind.

"Natasha is on the case of Banner."

"Any word on Loki?"

"Nothing. He and our...'turned' agents seem to have disappeared off the face of the planet."

Fury knew that Loki would leave no traces, but it was a blow nevertheless. Now the only option they had, was to find the Tesseract.

"Sir, if I may ask, do you think it's wise to trust the 'travelers'? I mean, we know next to nothing about them. We don't even know if the names they've given us are true..."

"I know Phil. But I don't want to let them loose in our world. For now, I've accepted them as Sirius Black and his godson Harry Potter, because I don't have a better explanation. I definitely don't want to get them out of my sight. For now, we will keep our distance...keep an eye out for anything, anything! Are we clear, Agent Coulson?"

"Yes, sir. By the way, your deputy director seems to be in conflict with your decisions."

Fury smiled. "I know that. But she'll come along. Okay then, I'll go meet with Rogers. That guy spends more time at the gym than his apartment."

"Do you think that he will sign my trading cards? If, it's no problem, will you ask him for me?"

"You ask him Phil. I don't think he'll refuse." He felt a natural smile come to his face, not the forced one he always produced. He liked Phil, as a man, as a responsible agent; he was a perfect choice for the face of SHIELD in the public world. He broke the silence between them as they walked outside to the waiting chopper. "Personally Phil, I feel that both of them are telling the truth. The hollow look that crept up in their eyes on some questions..."

* * *

Harry watched Sirius pace in the small room Fury had given them for the time being, saying that they would soon be in some Helicarrier. The room had two bunk beds and an attached bathroom. Fury had even left some clothes to wear...

His godfather would mutter "Dumbledore" now and then. He felt the same, because Dumbledore always had all the answers. But as much as he wished for it, they were all alone in this strange world.

"Harry, listen. I have an id-uh, wait."

"What?"

Sirius raised a finger slightly, and pointed it upwards. Harry immediately understood. He was aware that there were cameras in the room. He nodded mutely, and Sirius waved his wand, muttering, _"Muffliato."_

The former Marauder grinned boyishly, and happily spoke, "Now they can't hear us"

"Whoa- really? Nice spell!"

"Snivellus' creation" Sirius replied disgustedly. "Lily knew, and told James a few months after their marriage, and..."

"-he told you guys." Harry finished. "So what now?"

"First of all, I think that we should try to find the wizarding world. For all we know there might be an alternate Dumbledore here...hehehe."

His lips curled up, but he didn't even want to imagine the result of his meeting with another Harry Potter. He countered, "That's highly unlikely, Sirius. The International Confederation of Wizards would have informed this Fury about the existence of our society. Furthermore, if they can track magic, they would know if there was a hidden magical society."

"But still we should try. We must base our hopes on some form of assistance. Honestly, I don't think these Muggles can help us a lot."

He sighed, and agreed after a little more argument when he found himself under the puppy dog eyes of a human Padfoot.

"One more thing, Sirius. After the incident, I feel that I can feel others' emotions, I can read people very well all of a sudden."

"Explain."

"I can tell that you're worried for me, and scared because of this whole mishap."

"Indeed. Good for you Harry...but for now, we can do nothing but add it to the things-to-be-explained list." Harry sulked a bit, muttering about unreasonable godfathers.

A smile came to his lips suddenly, and he spoke warmly, "We've never spent so much time in each other's company, Sirius."

But instead of a smile, Sirius' face fell guiltily. He immediately protested, "Sorry Sirius. I didn't mean it that way...It's just, that we never got to spend time together. It doesn't help that I've got this opportunity because you died, and we are alone in a muggle world."

"It's alright, Prongslet. Thank God for the tiny miracles like this. But now that we're here, we should go meet this 'team' Fury is assembling."

"Mr. Potter would like to remind Mr. Black that we should first check our inventory."

"Merlin's beard! You're right. I almost forgot about that. We've our wands, nothing else!"

He said angrily, "If that toad hadn't got me, I would still have my cloak. Maybe even a shrunken Firebolt. That...that woman is responsible for everything bad that has happened this year, Voldemort being a close second."

Sirius laughed and he grinned. He hated Umbridge with a passion. He was happy that they had got their wands, but the Invisibility Cloak might have been a great help here, since these Muggles could track magic. Then a dazzling blue flame erupted on his lap, and he yelled in shock. Sirius jumped and took out his wand, fear etched on his gaunt face. But the fire stopped as soon as it started, and left behind, a light silver cloak...-**[1]**

He didn't know about Sirius but he whooped loudly, wrapping it quickly around his legs. He felt a distinct relief on seeing his legs disappear, but frowned when he saw the absurdity of all of this. He looked up, and mouthed, "Now this definitely needs an explanation." When he got no answer, he looked up. Sirius was staring at his legs. Then he croaked, "Did that cloak just travel across time and dimensions to be here?"

He nodded, grinning from ear to ear. "Amazing isn't it?"

Sirius snapped out of his shock and replied, "Don't get your hopes high, Harry. This doesn't mean that we can get away easily like the cloak if we find a way out. The cloak can be summoned by its master anywhere. James used to do it when we forgot the cloak during some of our, er- exploits."

The grin fell off his face and he said, "But by anywhere you mean...as in anywhere? Also, how am I its master?"

"Yes I think it means anywhere. You are its master because its ownership is passed on through the generations. There are rumors that this is Death's own cloak, as James' father told us boys once."

He laughed. "Oh c'mon, death's own cloak. That's ridiculous."

"It is, but that is the only explanation for the dimensional travel of old cloaks protective of their masters."

They shared a laugh, and Harry said, "Well that's settled, then. Two wands, a cloak, oh, I have the Marauders' Map, and Merlin!"

"Merlin, we don't have Mer-what?! What happened?"

"Dumbledore is in his study, along with Ron, Neville, Hermione, Luna, Ginny..." he trailed off, thinking furiously.

"Let me see...wow, wicked piece of magic then; we can still be connected to our universe. We can try contacting OH," Sirius suddenly yelped. "I completely forgot about this. Me and my stupid mirror ideas. I was a fool thinking that you'd be able to secretly contact me with Umbridge there...but now we can try."

"Wha-what mirror?" he asked suspiciously.

"You don't know? It's the twin of the mirror I gave to you after Christmas. Did you not open the package? I wrote a letter too...you didn't open it?"

Harry averted his eyes shamefully. He waited for Sirius to say something, and after a pregnant pause saw that Sirius was still waiting for his answer.

"It could have created more problems for you." he whispered, not trusting his voive. And then all the feelings hit him like a freight train...he was so stupid, not practicing Occlumency, trusting the false vision despite his friends' doubts, not going after Snape after his return from the forest.

"Harry...Harry! You don't have to worry about me. It works the other way round."

"It was my fault." He replied in a surprisingly steady voice. "Due to my stupid mistake Voldemort almost got his hands on the prophecy, Bellatrix almost killed you, and now we're stuck here until we beat a mad Norse God who knows magic."

Harry, it's not your fault. You did what you felt right. Blame Voldemort...it isn't right to wallow in guilt and self-pity. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I know that Riddle is to blame."

"Look me in the eyes while saying so, Harry."

He met the gray, fathomless eyes on the handsome face of his godfather, but couldn't bring the words to his lips. Then he shouted, "It was my fault okay? Whatever you believe...it doesn't change the fact that I didn't listen to Hermione. So DON'T tell me that it's not my fault when I bloody well know it is."

"Harry, the Order failed to let you know that the vision was false. If anything, it was my fault. As soon as Snape-"

"SNAPE. When I told him he sneered at me and left...leaving Umbridge to try and torture me!"

"Harry, as much as I hate Snape, you know that he couldn't have done anything in front of Umbridge. He alerted the Order, thinking that you had seen a vision of me, and waited for your return from the forest, but you didn't come, so he panicked-"

"Snape panicking for me? That's a good one Padfoot," he growled.

Sirius suddenly looked ashamed, and said, "You were almost right about us being bullies. We freely pranked him, when in reality he wasn't as bad, liked your mum and would do anything for her."

He felt as if the floor had abruptly been swept from under his feet, and all his anger flushed down the drain. "Snape...liked my mum?"

"Yes, and he vowed to protect you, his jealousy and anger at James aside. After the end of OWLs Lily stopped standing up for him and we bullied him with even more vigor and that's the reason why Snape is so bitter, and maybe the reason Snape went over to the other side."

He tried to gain control of the multitude of emotions running in his brain at the moment, but failed spectacularly, because Sirius noticed his inner turmoil. He continued, not allowing him to say anything. "After Snape told us that you didn't return, everyone panicked and rushed off to your aid, me included. But the real reason of all this mess was created when the Order was informed about the vision and they left me at the house, to give a reply to you. Unfortunately for us, Kreacher turned out to be the betrayer. I was tending to Buckbeak at the moment you called and- what?"

He goggled at his godfather, before gaping and muttering some choice words. Sirius chuckled and said, "Language, Harry. If Molly heard you talking like this..."

Both of them shuddered at a mental image that involved soap, teeth and a lot of bubbles.

"Dumbledore kept telling me to treat him better, and I refused to listen. Now see where has that landed me... re-birthed and dragged away to a different universe."

Harry said playfully, "I have half a mind to curse you, Death Eater. My godfather would never defend Kreacher, let alone Snape."

"Well played, Harry...well played. So now if this point is settled too, no guilt. Okay?"

"Maybe."

Sirius sighed, giving him a look that the discussion was not over. Then he hesitantly said, "I know that I haven't been much of a good influence or a great family member, Harry, but I'm responsible for you. I'm never leaving your side again."

Harry smiled, and murmured, "Deal."

"Now let's go and see if the magical world exists, and inform the MadEye personality that we're going on a, er-brief outing. Wow I just realized, two similar persons in different universes, one's name is Moody and other's is Fury. How wicked is that?"

Harry rolled his eyes at his godfather's antics. He raised a hand as in 'wait here', and tapped the mirror, left innocently on the bed by Sirius, shrunken to fit in pockets. It resized in a moment, and Harry asked, "First things first. How does it work?"

Sirius shook his head. "You have to speak the name of the other person holding it. Me and James used it when we were put in separate detentions. Where is yours presently?

"I don't know," he said weakly. "Maybe still in the back of my trunk, ever since Christmas."

Sirius said non-nonchalantly, "Don't be disappointed Harry. Even if we consider the fact that another magical artifact works across universes, only your voice and reflection would appear there. Someone would have to use it to actually use it..."

He nodded, and muttered, "That makes a lot of sense...but trying won't hurt. Besides we can magnify our voices. It would wake everyone in the dormitory if time works the same...well, not Ron, but others. Sirius waved a hand to give his approval.

"Your spell still working then?"

"Yes, shout as loud as you want."

"Okay, _Sonorus_."

"HELLOOOOOO, RON, DEAN, SEAMUS, DOES ANYBODY COPY? he added with a grin. SHIELD was already rubbing on him. "CAN ANYONE HEAR ME OVER. HERMIONE, PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL, DUMBLEDORE, LEMON DROP...HISSS" he wasn't sure where the last part about lemon drops came from, and why did he speak in Parseltongue, but he got no reply. He shrunk the mirror back, and dropped it on the bed, sulking badly. "_Quietus_."

Sirius had his fingers in his ears and he said loudly, "That was some yelling Harry."

* * *

**Location: HP Universe (Hogwarts)**

Hermione Granger waited patiently with her four friends for Professor Dumbledore to arrive. On their return, Phineas Nigellus had asked them about Dumbledore. None of them could do anything but nod numbly. She wanted to tell him about Sirius, but she couldn't bring herself to land the blow on the man, even if it was a portrait. They had just returned from the infirmary, and her chest still ached where the curse had hit her. Madam Pomfrey had told her that she would need to take twelve vile looking potions everyday. Neville, Ginny and Luna had been healed in a jiffy, and Ron's befuddlement had been taken off, but he had welts across his body where the brains had gripped him. In short, they were fine. Then some Order member had fire called the medi-witch to tell her that the headmaster requested their presence in his office and would be arriving shortly.

The fireplace burst into emerald-green flames, and everyone's eyes jumped to see the tall form of Dumbledore spinning in the grate. As Dumbledore stepped off the fire, all the portraits had jumped and started clapping and shouting. Dumbledore softly acknowledged, "Thank you, but I'm afraid this is not a time for me, and all of us to feel any kind of joy."

Hermione pushed down a lump that had risen in her throat by the broken tone of Dumbledore's voice, and wiped off a stray tear. All of the headmasters and headmistresses were now watching the present headmaster intently, waiting for him to continue.

Dumbledore walked up to the perch, and took out a baby phoenix from his pocket, and placed it gently on the tray of soft ashes beneath a golden post. He turned, and took out his wand. With a small wave, five squashy chairs appeared out of thin air and dropped in front of them. Everyone mechanically took their seats, hardly breathing, wondering what was it that he wanted to tell them now.

"We have lost two men today...two incredibly brave and intelligent men, and most importantly, two men with the purest of hearts...and I believe that the time has come, to correct my huge blunder."

She was barely listening, but her curiosity rose steadily as he spoke and she said, "Your blunder, Professor?"

"Yes, an old man's grievous blunder, Miss Granger. Alas, but I am responsible for the death of Sirius and the present state of Harry."

"But how are y-"

"Am I to understand," Phineas Nigellus spoke slowly,"-that my great-great grandson, the last of the Blacks- is dead?"

"Yes, Phineas," said Dumbledore.

"I don't believe it," said Phineas brusquely and marched out off his portrait, to go to his other painting at Grimmauld Palace.

Ron slowly asked, "What do you mean by the 'state' of Harry, sir? Is he alive?"

She swatted his arm angrily, wondering how could Ron ask such a question. Of course he was, there was no proof...he had to be alive, they had to h-hope... "What? I am merely stating the facts."

"No need to get angry, Miss Granger...Mr. Weasley has asked a reasonable question, and it needs to be answered."

She glared at Ron through wet eyes, who didn't say anything.

"All of the complications started sixteen years ago, when I went to the Hog's Head to interview an applicant for the post of Divination, though it was against my inclination to allow the continuation of a, as Minerva puts it, 'woolly' subject at Hogwarts. The applicant was the great-great granddaughter of a famous Seer, and I thought it common politeness to meet her. I was disappointed. It seemed to me that she had not a trace of the gift herself. I told her, courteously I hope, that I did not think she would be suitable for the post. I turned to leave."

Then Dumbledore got to his feet and walked to a black cabinet that stood besides Fawkes' perch. She didn't know what was it, but gears shifted in her mind when Dumbledore took out a small stone basin with runic edges surrounding its edges. She was sure that it was the Pensieve Harry told them about.

Dumbledore walked back to the desk, placed the Pensieve upon it, and raised his wand to his own temple. From it, he withdrew silvery, gossamer-fine strands of thought clinging to the wand and deposited them into the basin. He sat back down behind his desk and watched his thoughts swirl and drift inside the Pensieve for a moment. Then, with a sigh, he raised his wand and prodded the silvery substance with its tip. A figure rose out of it, draped in shawls, her eyes magnified to enormous size behind her glasses, and she revolved slowly; her feet in the basin. But when Sibyll Trelawney spoke, it was not in her usual ethereal, mystic voice, but in harsh, hoarse tones unusual for her.

"The one with the power to vanquish the - Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

The slowly revolving Professor Trelawney sank back into the silver mass below and vanished. None of them spoke anything for a minute. Then Neville said in a low voice, "Is that the prophecy that broke?"

"Indeed, Mr. Longbottom. This is the same prophecy, the copy of which was stored at the Department of Mysteries."

Ginny said, "What does it mean, Professor?"

Luna, who had been quiet until that point, spoke in her dreamy voice, "It's simple Ginevra, isn't it...Harry has to be the one who will defeat Lord Voldemort...close your mouth Ronald, it seems like the Wrackspurts have you."

Hermione turned her eyes back to the headmaster, a single word on her lips. "Explain."

"The prophecy refers to a child born at the end of July, whose parents would have defied Voldemort three times until then, and though close you are to the true result Miss Lovegood, this prophecy doesn't dictate anything. It simply says that the child will have the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, but knowing the history between the two persons concerned, I daresay that the last line is a conceivable outcome."

She opened her mouth, and closed it when nothing came out of her voice box.

"You might ask, why am I telling all of this to you...because you deserve to know the truth. You need to know why Voldemort tried to kill Harry as a child. I have kept the truth from everyone for sixteen years, and now I don't want to hold it, even if I want to protect Harry. All of you have shown immense courage, and definitely earned the right. Besides, the word on Prophecy will be leaked to the media by tomorrow morning, and I wished that you know the truth from a reliable source."

Hermione said hesitantly, "Is that why you put Harry with the Dursleys?"

"Yes, and I regret that I had to send him to those pitiful"

"Regret doesn't make everything fine. They hated him, and yet you refused to listen. You sent him away, just because you wanted someone to defeat Voldemort!?"

Ron was now gaping at her like she had grown another head over her shoulders. Luna was staring at Dumbledore's phoenix fondly, and Ginny was, well, being Ginny. Neville looked like he didn't want to listen anything more.

To her surprise, Dumbledore didn't show any sign of anger. He continued surveying her with those piercing blue eyes of his. She continued to glare back, before realizing with a jolt that he might be reading her mind, and averted her eyes sharply.

"Lily Potter died to save Harry. In doing so, she placed an ancient charm on Harry, which saved Harry by repelling the killing curse. By placing him at 4, Privet Drive, with his blood at his mother's side, I sealed the charm she put on Harry. Harry would be safe from everyone who intended to harm him, while he was there. It was an old man's mistake, not telling anyone about the prophecy. I stooped to the same weakness Voldemort expects us loving fools to show. There should have been a mutual confidence and trust between us, but all of us try to protect our loved ones. I am at fault here, but never in my life did I ever intend to use Harry."

"But you purposefully allowed him to go on those deadly adventures. You tried to mold a hero!"

"Try and put yourself in my shoes...you just hear that Voldemort is dead, not that you believe so...a brilliant couple, your two former, exceptionally bright students are dead, the world is celebrating, arrests being made all across the country, you realize that the Death Eaters are panicking, and you have a child, the world calling him the Boy-Who-Lived, and his fate lies in your hand. What would you do?"

She wanted to shout anything, but surprisingly found herself saying, "The same thing you did..."

"I admit that I failed to protect my students from schemes of Voldemort, but do you not think that if I wanted a weapon, a 'molded hero', the so-called good guy, would I not have raised him myself, training him day and night for the ordeal that lay before him? Would you give him a chance to live, or take his childhood away, telling him that a Dark Lord was after his blood?"

"No," she was feeling a bit ashamed now. She still felt that Dumbledore was wrong, but he had chosen the least wrong alternative. She felt strange that she was considering the lesser of the two evils, but what was done, was done.

Neville said softly, "But Professor, I was also born at the end of July."

"Ah, I'm glad you made the connection Mr. Longbottom. You were the other candidate for the prophecy, but you forget the third line...Voldemort marked Harry as his equal, gave him the scar. He considered a halfblood like himself as a potential threat, not a pureblood, and by giving Harry that scar, he effectively sealed his fate."

"What do you mean?" Ron said, his face devoid of any color.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll rephrase. Not Harry's fate. Voldemort's. He chose his own greatest enemy, Mr. Weasley. By attacking Harry, he gave him a desire for revenge, fueled by his own sense of goodness, which should ultimately lead to the end of one, by the hand of the other."

Ginny spoke, "Professor, you haven't explained how it was your fault that Harry is..."

"Later, Miss Weasley, for it's too late now. We shall focus on my shortcomings when we meet next time. But for now, I know that Harry is not dead, and that he is not in this world."

"How?" Hermione challenged.

"You know of my guess that the power Harry unlocked was love, and give me a reason to believe that Harry is dead."

She was stunned, in an irritating way. Dumbledore had trapped her in her own question. If she had to believe Harry was alive, then he was in some other world, which she certainly didn't want to believe. But believe had 'lie' hidden in it, and she wanted her best friend alive, even if in a different world.

"How can you say that he is not in this world?"

"Being a headmaster gives you certain privileges, Miss Granger. Hogwarts makes me feel the Trace on every student. Yes, I can track every student as accurately as the Ministry. When Harry disappeared, I felt that his Trace...ceased to exist all of a sudden."

Ron said in a confused tone, "It could have been removed."

"Good question, but there is a small difference between removal of a spell and total elimination. Magic always leaves trails, ones you can track if you have an organized mind. Now, when I saw that Harry burst into flames, and his co-ordinates just...for lack of a better word, vanished from this planet. Do you have any evidence or theory to refute mine?"

She bristled under her gaze, and suggested weakly, "Maybe it got removed by this power."

"I sincerely hope that you're right, and we'll search every place on Earth, but again the word 'removed'...off to the infirmary now, or Madam Pomfrey would beat me with that stick of hers. Meanwhile, one good thing came out of this...the Minister saw Voldemort himself, and finally we can count on an immediate full stop to the idiocy we've faced for the past year."

Everyone stood up, ready to leave, when Dumbledore softly said, "Now, we start our search for Harry, in this world, as well as look for a way to contact him. But I fear, that since Harry sent himself, only he can bring himself back."

They left the headmaster staring complacently at his interlocked fingers, and no one said anything. Unluckily for them, no one was aware that in the fifth year dormitory for the Gryffindor boys, muffled noises were coming from beneath an empty bed. Seamus and Dean were snoring peacefully, and did not wake up when their names were called.

* * *

**Location: Helicarrier (Marvel Cinematic Universe)**

"A SHIP? So you're telling me, that we're going to chase down your legendary trickster from a ship? Are you serious?"

Harry watched his godfather gaping at Director Fury, being thoroughly amused himself. He laughed heartily when Fury replied smugly, "No, you are."

Sirius looked gobsmacked. No one had turned a Sirius jab back at him, ever. His mouth remained open for a few seconds before he too grinned, "This ship better be cool."

"You have no idea, Black."

Harry and Sirius had went to London, just to be sure that there were no wizards here. After Sirius had run headlong into a platform wall, and after receiving odd looks from the people, they tried to find Hogwarts. A ruin was there alright, but only a ruin. No hidden school for sorcery. In their small journey, Harry discovered that he didn't like apparition one bit. He wanted to throw up when Sirius disapparated them to Kings Cross. On returning, they found out that Fury was not happy with their exploits, even when they had informed him before.

It turned out, that Fury had placed trackers on the clothes, kevlar jumpsuits to be exact. He'd been alarmed to get their location suddenly in London, then in some remote area in Scotland. He was a bit more suspicious now, and thought that they had gone to rendezvous with Loki. After a shouting match that was followed by a truce, Sirius and Fury agreed to trust each other if it was mutual. Then they had been taken to the Helicarrier.

Harry was beyond impressed by it so far. The things Muggles could build without magic...if wizards and muggles could be joined, it would be an almost unstoppable force, like they had to prove here by getting back the 'cube'.

He flicked over the file of the team Fury had been talking about. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff...he was shocked on learning about their abilities. He wanted to meet them badly. It would be an...'enlightening' experience in his opinion.

They were presently standing like fools on a huge runway, apparently waiting for others to arrive. He suddenly called out to Sirius, "Oi Padfoot!"

"Yes Prongslet?"

"I am worried."

"About what?"

"What if my OWL results were bad?"

Sirius gave him an incredulous look, and then began to laugh, gripping his sides, earning himself a dirty look from a SHIELD pilot standing besides an aircraft, which he considered was a military jet.

"What?" he asked, irritated by the lack of response.

"We're traipsing in a different dimension, and you're worried about your exam results. Hermione has rubbed off on you!"

He protested, "No. It's just that, I was distracted in a lot of exams. Only DADA went normally."

"Moony would be proud...hey, don't worry Pup, you will get good results. Besides, it's not the grades, it's what you do that defines your life."

Fury snuck up behind them and barked, "Adding peer pressure on the boy, Mr. Black?"

"Quite the contrary, sir," he replied. Fury gave a small smile to Harry, which came out more like a grimace.

"We still have to discuss about your role in this Mr. Black. Once they all arrive, we get to business faster than you can say Quidditch."

Harry scrunched his brows in confusion. "What did you say? Faster than?"

"Faster than you can say SHIELD. Why?" Fury said lightly.

He replied, "Nothing. Just...forget it. Maybe I'm homesick."

Fury nodded sympathetically. "Anyways, it can be agreed that Potter should stay here on the Helicarrier while you aid us-"

"NO," they both yelled. Fury looked confused. Sirius said, "I'm not leaving Harry," and Harry said, "I will help. I'm better than most of your agents put together."

Fury glared at both, and then turned to his godfather. "How can you? Don't you want to protect him? Is there something that I should know about him? How can you expect a fifteen year old boy to fight?"

Sirius merely waved his barrage of questions away. "Harry is far more capable than your average fifteen year old teenager, Director. Wherever I go, Harry does. I've half a mind to stay on the Helicarrier." Before Harry could protest, Fury spoke, "Ah, here she comes. Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, meet Agent Romanoff."

They whipped around and saw a redhead get out of a jet that had arrived a minute ago. She made her way over to them, walking with a grace and a...good balance. Harry mused that it was necessary for a master assassin like her. She said, "Hi." without any expression on her face. He and Sirius said, "Hi," mechanically. Then they fell into an awkward silence.

"Are you the travelers? Sirius and his godson Harry?"

"Yes, "Sirius proudly replied, sending a warm feeling down Harry's body. She eyed Sirius warily, and he could tell that she was not impressed by Sirius' thin and ghost-like appearance. She turned her blue eyes to him, and said, "No offence Harry, but you're not the warrior type, and Sirius, will you be able to hold your own with only your magic?"

He wanted to yell, "Of course. I have Dark Lords as starters before a meal," and saw that Sirius was smiling widely. He spoke in his 'charming-boy' voice, "Aw c'mon, I am pretty powerful, not just a ladies' man," he added the last part quiet slyly, and Harry grinned.

A moment later, Sirius had been knocked on the ground, with Natasha's foot over his chest. She smiled, "From the next time, never lay down your guard."

Harry laughed at his godfather's plight and replied, "Constance Vigilance, Sirius." Natasha nodded encouragingly towards him, while Sirius protested, "She took my by surprise. Unfair!"

Natasha helped him back to his feet, and he made a huge show of smoothing his hair and wiping his clothes. She asked Fury, "When will they be arriving?"

"Cap is on his way here with Agent Coulson, and Banner should be arriving in a few minutes. Stark will as usual, make a grand entrance of his own, God knows when..."

Harry heard Natasha mutter something that sounded like 'obsessed' and 'trading cards'. He wisely decided that he didn't need to know. Besides, the first of the Avengers had been normal, and he wondered if others felt the same way about him like he was now, about the Avengers.

* * *

**End of Chapter 1**

**(A/N): **Here is the next chapter. Not too much action in this one, as this was just to provide fillers and set the plot nicely. The story will pick up fast from the next chapter when Harry meets the Avengers.

Thanks for the overwhelming response so far. I'm grateful to everyone who decided to read the story, and gave their approval. Your comments were a great help, so a special thanks to all the people who reviewed.

[1]- In canon, nothing is mentioned about the cloak. It just says that they pulled it off after entering Umbridge's office, so I took it unavailable at first, because Harry would have used it in the Department of Mysteries otherwise...

Tell me what you thought of this chapter. All suggestions are welcomed. You can obviously review if you enjoyed is so far, and you can also PM me and I'll get back to you ASAP. Until next time, then...

* * *

Up next, on Harry Potter: A New Universe -

Harry meets the Avengers, and the search for Loki and the mysterious Tesseract finally starts. Loki attempts to steal the Iridium in Stuttgart, but he has a surprise waiting for him from a different dimension. How will he react to the presence of two strangers who know magic...

* * *

P.S- You know what to do. Hit that Review button.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. All rights belong to the respective owners and I'm just borrowing them for my pleasure.

Note:

Thoughts- 'Harry Potter'

Spells(Italic)- _Stupefy_

Flashback/Disjoint Scene(Bold) - **Harry Potter**

* * *

Previously, on Harry Potter: A New Universe -

Harry and Sirius settle in their new routine, and try to contact anyone in their universe using the two way mirror, but unluckily for them, no one hears Harry's voice. Dumbledore explains the prophecy to the five DA members, as it would be eventually leaked somehow anyway. The two travelers wait for the Avengers to arrive along with Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff.

* * *

**Harry Potter: A New Universe**

**Chapter 2**

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Quinjet, 1340 feet over sea level**

Steve Rogers studied the Avengers Initiative file for the third time that day. It was a poor way to divert his attention away from the huge void in his mind, but he had no alternative. After watching the files of all his previous acquaintances, the word 'DECEASED' printed in red ink over most of them, he had decided to push his past away, ignore it, pretend that it never existed, and that now his only job was to survive for his country in this 'time'.

Peggy's file had been a shock. He had picked up the phone many times and tried to call her, but couldn't bring himself to say anything. But he still owed her that dance...

Pushing away the chasm of emptiness that came with the thought in his mind, he focused on the footage of a green creature wreaking havoc on the...'laptop' in front of him. By the corner of his eyes he saw Agent Coulson come to his seat.

"So this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?"

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

The 'Hulk', fitting name he thought, roared and slammed a jeep. He stopped the video by something they said was the pause option.

"Didn't really go his way, did it?"

"Not so much. When he's got that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking."

He looked up, confused. Coulson replied, "He's like a...smart person...I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially."

He gave him a weak smile. "I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board."

He wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he stood up and moved closer to the cockpit, and said, "Well, I hope I'm the man for the job."

"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

He was a little hurt by the comment. That uniform was like a link for him to his own world. Not wanting to sound rude, he said lightly, "The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old-fashioned?"

To his surprise, Phil Coulson said, "With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned."

He inclined his head in a slight nod. He could see that the man was a little nervous around him, but he didn't know why. He asked, "What was all that about magic and people from other worlds? I didn't have a clue what the Director was talking about, and nothing was given in the debriefing packet."

"Oh, that," Coulson fell silent, as if wondering what to say. Then he replied slowly, "After the Tesseract was stolen by Loki, two men dropped out of nowhere...close to the base that got severely damaged. Well, more like a man and a boy. They are apparently from another world, where magic is real, wizards exist."

"Magic," he said, bemused. "After seventy years, I don't know what to believe now. Gods, aliens and now magicians, from 'another world'.

"Director Fury admits that we need their help, as Loki is proficient in...magic, as was demonstrated in his assault. It would be great to have them as allies...look, we're almost there."

* * *

The time spent on the Helicarrier runway seemed to solidify for Harry. He once asked Fury for a reason to their silent vigil there, but he shrugged and went inside. He wanted to stamp his foot in frustration, as they were wasting time standing there when they could be tracking their elusive weapon inside the ship.

Maybe Sirius saw the look on his face, because he pushed him aside, flashing another winning smile to Natasha. He got them in a corner of the jet bays, where no one was looking and cast the Muffliato spell.

"What's the matter Pup?"

"Nothing, Sirius. I just feel that we're wasting time, when something awful could be going on in our world. Everyone would be so worried..."

Sirius nodded grimly and said, "We already discussed this, Harry. There is nothing we can do, and nothing we do will change anything. Our only option is to assist these superheroes and retrieve the Tesseract."

He sighed, and said, "Voldemort was another thing Padfoot...this is a mythological being we're talking about. He's a Norse God. I feel a little outmatched. Cross that...not little, very! Very, very outmatched."

Sirius smiled and said, "We've still got to try...it's our only hope for getting back. Besides, where did these negative thoughts come from?"

"Dunno...I mean, since last night, my scar didn't hurt a bit. I feel like this is just, the calm before the storm or something like that. Can you teach me more things about spells, so that I stand a better chance? The battle at the DoM made me realize one thing, that I'm no match for someone like Voldemort. I-"

Sirius cut him off before he could ramble more and said, "Of course, but don't you go thinking that you're no match for Voldemort, Harry. He's not even in the scale of comparison as far as you are concerned. Our love for each other makes us a lot more stronger than we imagine us to be."

He mumbled, "Now you are talking like Dumbledore."

Sirius gasped in mock horror, and said, "I'm not over a century old, Harry! Ah, someone has arrived."

They made their way over to a jet that was landing at the moment. Natasha was already halfway there, so they increased their pace with quick strides, wondering about the newly arrived Avenger.

The exit opened, and out stepped the same middle-aged man who had confronted them earlier. He recalled that his name was Phil Coulson. Then behind him, a blond man came out of the plane, his height well over six feet with a well built musculature. This had to be Captain America. They caught up with Natasha who was almost there, when Agent Coulson noticed her.

"Agent Romanoff, meet Captain Rogers."

The aforementioned person replied politely," Ma'am."

Natasha said, "Hi," and added to Coulson, "They need you on the bridge."

Harry and Sirius stayed awkwardly silent. Harry decided to start the conversation and broke the silence by saying, "Hi. I'm Harry. This is my godfather Sirius. Nice to meet you, Mr. Rogers."

He extended his hand, and Rogers took it, shaking it firmly, his yes resting for a second on his scar. He said hesitantly, "So you...both of you, can do magic?"

He nodded, and Sirius finally entered the conversation. "Yep. Real Magic...heard a lot about you, Mr. Rogers." They shook hands, and Rogers said, "Call me Steve."

They turned to walk back to the entrance of the ship. Natasha eyed Steve with a hint of amusement in her face and said, "There's quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice." Steve shrugged it with a hint of a curl on his lips. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

Now Steve appeared thoroughly amused and replied, "Trading cards?"

"They're vintage. He's very proud."

Sirius whispered in his ear, "If I had Agrippa in my Chocolate Frog Cards, I would be proud too."

Harry rolled his eyes and they continued walking in silence. Just then, Steve spotted someone who had gotten out of a latest jet arrival. He called out, "Dr. Banner?"

He muttered, "Good eyesight."

Steve smiled and replied, "All because of the serum."

"Yeah Hi, they told me you would be coming."

The man, who was fidgeting slightly before then, took the offered hand of Steve. To Harry he looked like an alert man, but one who didn't want to be in this place willingly. He could feel nervousness around him, and to his surprise, a huge wave of leashed anger. He wanted to ask, but kept his mouth shut as he didn't know about this new ability of himself clearly.

"-find the cube?"

"Is that the...only word on me?"

"The only word I care about."

"This must be...strange for you...all this."

Steve threw some glances at the tense atmosphere and the SHIELD agents scuttling around like it was a war zone, and replied, "Actually, this is kind of familiar."

Harry and Sirius had found Dr. Banner very interesting. Sirius was fascinated by the transformation of his and said that it was like a kind of Animagus transformation. He'd regaled Harry with stories of the Marauders' Animagus training.

**"When you transform for the first time, the animal mind almost takes over. You've got to control it from escaping and keep it dormant. That's why it should be done in front of supervisors."**

**Harry had asked, "What if the animal mind takes over?"  
**

**"Well...you spend the rest of your lives as the particular animal. James almost lost it as a stag. He tried to spear my stomach with those antlers. It took a good twenty minutes to get him under control."  
**

**He chuckled as he imagined his father bending his head down and charging Sirius.  
**

**"Anyways...this Banner bloke seems to me, like...an Animagus transformation gone wrong."  
**

**"Are you kidding?" Harry asked incredulously. "The 'Hulk' is no animal, or any species for humans to transform into."  
**

**Sirius rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and said, "Well, the Muggle theory of the gamma radiation...or whatever the heck is that seems true to me. But the key element in the video of his transformation is like I transform. I know it for sure."  
**

Harry snapped off his thoughts when he realized that Dr. Banner was talking to Sirius about magic. He wasn't bewildered at all and listened everything with rapt attention. On seeing his face, Dr. Banner replied, "Contrary to things I've seen, this sounds believable." Sirius winked at him, and he felt bad for missing intros. He and his chains of thoughts...

Natasha, who was silent until now, announced, "Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe."

They paced to the edge of the runway, and Steve stated incredulously, "Is this a submarine?!"

Smirking, Bruce replied, "Really? They want me submerged in a pressurized metal container?"

Harry's emotions were of awe as he saw the water churning hard, white foams swirling with raw power. Slowly, the rotors emerged out of the violent surface of the sea water, and the Helicarrier began to rise with a grace like that of a mighty Wingardium Leviosa.

"Oh, no, this is MUCH worse!" Bruce blurted, smiling, while Sirius exclaimed, "Wicked!"

* * *

**Location: Hogwarts (HP Universe)**

Ron Weasley dashed through the third floor corridor, in an urgent hurry to get to the headmaster's office. He stopped abruptly once he reached the stone gargoyle, and waited for a few seconds to catch his breath.

"Fizzing Whizbee," he popped off, panting hard. The stone gargoyle leapt aside to reveal the stairs, and he scrambled hastily to the first step, as the circular staircase began to move. He often tended to be over-enthusiastic, a trait that he found proved again when he found himself at the top step without even waiting for his step to reach the end.

He lifted the griffin-shaped brass knocker, and knocked two times, waiting for the calm 'Enter'. But no one responded. He frowned, and knocked again. There was no answer. Contemplating about the reason behind Dumbledore's absence he was caught between a desire to wait; the other option to go away and come back later, obviously.

The oaken doors suddenly swung wide open, and he entered nervously. There was no one in the office...even the perch of the phoenix stood empty. He looked around, as if hoping that Dumbledore would appear out of some hidden corner. He was startled when the portrait besides Dumbledore's chair exclaimed, "The office opened for you, young man. You may stay here and wait for the headmaster to arrive. At the present moment, he's in the forest, rescuing the toad...er, Umbridge."

Ron snorted while the other portraits made disgusted noises at the sound of Umbidge's name in the discussion. Phineas sneered, "The Weasley boy? I wonder what Albus sees in you...keeps talking about how brave you are. I'd say that you're reckless like all the Gyffindors I've had the misfortune to meet."

He swelled up on hearing the praise, and didn't even hear the insult thrown at him. He replied to the portrait of...Dippet. "Uh thanks, sir. I'll wait." He sat down in one of the chairs, and the other portraits closed their painted eyes. Ron found the scene really weird.

He tapped his foot, getting bored already. He wished for Dumbledore to leave the search and left the hag to rot with the centaurs. The grand desk before him still contained those mysterious silver instruments, the use of which he had no clue about. But a better thing caught his attention. A packet of a transparent thing...what was that, yes, poly-something laid on the desk. He picked it up and saw lots of sherbet lemons inside. Grinning widely, he popped one into his mouth without sparing a thought for his headmaster's obsession with them.

* * *

**Location: Helicarrier (Marvel Cinematic Universe)**

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please."

Harry watched from a platform as Natasha strode off, muttering to Banner, "You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."

His godfather asked Fury, "You said something about your men under spells...?"

Fury sighed, and replied, "When Loki appeared, he touched the tip of his sceptre to the chests of our agents, and they suddenly turned...evil, doing his bidding." Harry frowned, his mind screaming 'IMPERIUS CURSE', but by touching...he'd no idea.

Sirius appeared to be thinking hard, and said, "Might be a modification of the Imperius Curse, but it forces, not turns them 'evil', as you said. Did the victims' eyes glaze over?"

"No...but their eyes glowed blue for a second. Wait, you know this...spell?"

Fury looked horrified when Sirius nodded, and narrowed his eyes at the pair of them. "What are the other things you can do?"

Sirius didn't answer, and Fury paled slightly, his emotionless mask slipping off. Harry didn't need to watch his face, he could feel the fear of the director. From a podium at the center of the room, a woman was shouting orders to the men. She came over to them and glared at him and his godfather in a Mcgonagall-ish sort of way, and he knew that she didn't trust them a bit.

Harry said, "No need to worry. The curse can be thrown off, if you have a strong will and determination. I'm sure your people are fighting it every moment."

The relief that flitted across Fury's face was replaced by anticipation when Sirius said, "I won't be sure about that Harry. This is very dark magic. If I'm not wrong, there is dark magic in their body now, combined with the Imperius, or whatever controlling spell it was. It can't be thrown unless pure magic purifies their minds, or something happens to abruptly end the curse. What?"

Harry and Director Fury stared at Sirius, Fury with a disbelieving look while Harry with a questioning one.

"What...when you're taught dark magic for sixteen years..." he immediately stopped, and Harry saw suspicion increase on Fury's face.

"So you're telling me, that you are a dark wizard in your world?"

Harry immediately shouted "NO" while Sirius laughed, which turned into a weak chuckle and then faded into silence. "Oh c'mon, do I look like a dark wizard to you?"

Fury pointed a finger at his godfather, but before he opened his mouth Steve strolled over to Harry and said, "Sir, if you ask me, we've no right to ask them anything about their world. We've to accept everything they tell us, and if they are dark wizards so be it. At least they're trying to help us."

"Rogers, we cannot go on trusting people without having reasons for their behavior."

Sirius barked, "Reasons for my behavior? What have we done to you so far? If I wanted I could turn you into a fox right now, but I didn't, sly old man. So keep your trap shut if you want to accuse me of using dark magic again!"

By then everyone was watching their tennis match of shouts, and Steve looked uncomfortable by the argument. Harry knew that Sirius hated dark magic and to be accused...well, that didn't bode well for the accuser. He pleaded silently, giving his godfather a meaningful look that made him relax slightly.

"Now if that's settled, back to topic. The Imperius Curse can be thrown. Look. IMPERIO!"

Sirius had his wand out and he'd pointed it on Steve, who jumped and his eyes glazed over. Before Harry could see what happened to Steve, most of the people in the control room had a gun out, pointing at Sirius.

"What just happened?" Steve asked. "Why were you telling me to waltz with Fury?" he asked Sirius, who grinned and pointed a finger at Steve. "See, it can be thrown off. Now lower your pathetic weapons."

Everyone glanced at the director for orders, who lowered his gun, which was followed by others. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, which acted as a precursor for dangerous amounts of anger on his mutt of a godfather. He smacked Sirius on the arm, who yelped and stumbled back. Harry growled, "What was the reason behind all this drama?"

Sirius stared at him, mouth open in a comical 'O'. He said, "What!"

"H-Harry, you just apparated."

He took a step back, staggering on his feet.

"You were standing there besides Steve..."

Harry whipped around and saw that everyone was watching him, with a silence that rivaled Silencio. Sirius laughed behind him, and said, "That's great. You learnt to apparate on your own."

He turned around, facing Sirius, who got off the floor, and said, "Have you done this before?"

"Ye-no..." he said. "I mean, I once accidentally found myself on the school roof when Dudley was chasing me. I was seven. But it was accidental magic, and now I just wanted to be there and hit the living daylights out of you."

Grinning from ear to ear, his godfather replied, "Excellent. Now try apparating back to Steve."

He thought about Steve, and found himself looking into his blue eyes a second later, who snapped out of his shock and blurted, "Is this thing normal for you people?"

Sirius replied, "Yeah, but not for children without any kind of training or lessons. C'mon Harry, let's work on your other skills. Do you have any place for us?"

Fury blinked, and then seemed to collect himself before replying, "Oh, yes. Agent Coulson, please show them to a training room."

Harry looked strangely at the grim director. Dizzying amounts of suspicion were 'visible' to him, leaving him to think about possible ways of escapes if SHIELD changed their minds. For a second, he looked straight into the cold eyes of Fury, and his vision clouded with images, memories that didn't belong to him. He broke eye contact hastily, mentally astounded by the fact that he was using Legilimency without meaning to, and berated himself for the offense.

Sirius put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and they left the control room with Coulson.

* * *

**Location: Hogwarts, HP Universe**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore informed the medi-witch about her latest patient, who reluctantly admitted her in. Bowing slightly, he left the infirmary and made his way to his office, smiling once in a while when he saw students scrambling hastily to make way for him. Was he that intimidating...? He smiled regularly and made wise cracks, just to make the people around him comfortable. But to others, he would always be the vanquisher of his fr...Grindelwald, or the best wizard of the age, or the only wizard whom Voldemort feared. Titles were good, as long as they didn't cloud the judgement of himself by others. Sadly, that happened almost always. Ah, an oxymoron.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice his arrival at the stone gargoyle that leapt aside on seeing him, giving an immaculate bow. He acknowledged by inclining his head and stepped on the first stone step.

The oaken doors swung to admit him and he was mildly surprised on seeing a red head waiting for him in his office. Ronald Weasley whipped around in the chair and got on his feet quickly, looking slightly abashed. He noticed the bag of his precious sweets lying open on the desk, and realized the reason behind the discomfort of the boy.

He smiled. "Ah, I see you've found my packet of sherbet lemons, quite delicious, aren't they, m'boy?"

Ronald smiled weakly, while Phineas Nigellus snorted, "Got the appetite of a pig in his blood, Albus..."

"Enough, Phineas," he said sternly, while Ronald's ears turned slightly pink. He said kindly, "May I know the reason behind your gracious visit, Mr. Weasley?"

"Sir, today we just remembered that, Harry's cloak, it was taken by Umbridge...so I er- broke into her office to-" the boy looked up to see if he was going to be reprimanded for breaking into a teacher's office, but he waved his hand lightly. "Understandable. Please continue."

"Yeah, well...so, the cloak is not there."

"Not there?" he asked sharply, his mind already making many theories about the disappearance of the cloak along with its master. "Are you sure Mr. Weasley? Did you look-"

"I'm damn sure! Er-sorry, sir."

"I don't know what are you apologizing for, Mr. Weasley. I might have gone temporarily deaf."

"I weakly remembered her stuffing it in a drawer, so I opened it, but the cloak is not there. I tried to Accio it, but that too didn't work."

"The Summoning Charm won't work on the cloak, my boy. It's not an ordinary cloak, as you might have noticed."

Ronald looked up again, and he was slightly miffed by the boy's nervousness and his habit of not meeting his eyes, but he saw that his freckled face held confusion and curiosity. Their eyes met, and unwillingly he sifted through his memories, confirming the fact that there was indeed, no cloak in the office and that the teenager had looked carefully.

"Very well, thank you for bringing this to my attention Mr. Weasley. You may leave."

The boy passed him, shooting glances at him every two seconds, and finally he got the courage to say, "Did you get any clue about his location?"

He shook his head regretfully, and replied, "No, and we're searching everywhere in Britain, as well as looking out for his magical signature. But Voldemort-" Here Ronald flinched and he instinctively said, "Don't fear his name, Ron." The boy slightly grew confident at the use of his affectionate name, and he added, "Besides, if you're afraid of the name, Voldemort's job gets easier. He gets a free reign of terror among the masses. It won't help in the slightest when you face him."

"Me? But sir, you said Harry-"

"The prophecy is not set in stone, Ron. You must know that the prophecies are vague, and it only says that Harry has the power to vanquish him, and that neither can live while the other survives. Take a moment to think, why did I continue the Order after the prophecy was made? Should I have sat behind, waiting for Harry to finish the prophecy?"

"Because someone had to do it."

"Exactly! Someone had to do it, and are you willing to be this someone? Harry might have to finish it in the end, but he needs the support of brilliant people on his side, especially a wonderful strategist like you."

He knew very well about the jealousy problems of Ronald, and hoped that this would have an effect on him. He continued, "Anyways, Voldemort can't be allowed to gain knowledge of this...incident, so currently Harry is in hiding as far as he is concerned. Unfortunately, if my guesses are wrong, then we've got a bigger problem. If Harry doesn't leave his magical signature it's practically impossible to find him in this world. On the other hand, if I'm correct, we can only wait."

Ronald nodded, and pushed the doors open. Albus spoke softly, "He'll be back, Ron. He'll be back, from wherever he's gone to." The boy didn't speak anything. Albus didn't expect him to.

Later when he sat alone in his office, he twirled his wand, gazing intently at the elder wood. "Interesting...cloak can find its master, if I'm not wrong."

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Helicarrier, Marvel Cinematic Universe**

Harry and Sirius spent the day practicing dueling, and Sirius taught him various new spells, which were surprisingly easier for him to master. Even Sirius looked impressed by his quick learning, and moved on to complex Transfiguration, some very difficult charms, and even a few dark spells. To his credit, Harry mastered them before the sun set. Sirius had put a notice-me-not spell on them, so that the cameras weren't able to pick them up. Harry had been surprised when Sirius told him that apparating was very uncomfortable. His godfather had gaped at him when he had told him that he was able to do it painlessly.

They strolled lazily in the neat corridors of the ship, discussing their options. It was clear that Fury wasn't exactly a trusting sort of bloke, and his eye-patch definitely rivaled Moody's magical eye, even if the former was just a piece of cloth with no magical powers.

Harry currently felt like power was coursing through his every sinew, waiting to be unleashed. He hadn't told Sirius, but that was the main reason he picked up the spells so easily. Honestly, he was scared by this new found strength. It seemed to be increasing steadily, and he already felt his control slipping a few times, when Sirius beat him in their practice duels.

"Sometimes I ask a question to myself, Harry...why are we so calm about all of this?"

"Sometimes? I'm thinking that every minute...but the answer will be because anything we do won't change a thing, so better find a goal before completely losing it in this new world...which is, finding the Tesseract."

"When did you mature?! Anyways, if this cube didn't work, what will we do? I can't imagine being stuck here for the rest of my life."

"You're dead in that world, Sirius," Harry commented dryly, before realizing what he'd said. Sirius didn't mind and said, "You're right, but still that doesn't make it easy."

"It doesn't," he agreed wholeheartedly.

They crossed the lab where Bruce was working. Harry thought Bruce to be somewhat like Remus, who shied away from society to protect others from himself. But Remus had no control over his transformation, while Bruce only regretted his every transformation, as it was triggered by rage.

They entered the control room again, noticing that Coulson was having an awkward conversation with Steve, who looked a little uncomfortable. Harry could only feel for all the extraordinary people here, who were practically worshiped...even the Boy-Who-Lived, the only presently alive hero, except maybe Dumbledore, wasn't worshiped in magical Britain.

"We got a hit, sixty seven percent."

Coulson moved over to the computer where a guy was matching Loki's face in all the photos on the planet.

"Wait, cross-match. Seventy nine percent."

Coulson asked, "Location?"

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

Everyone's eyes fell on Fury who said calmly, "Captain, you're up."

Harry saw Steve give a curt nod to Fury and walk away, while the director turned his penetrating gaze into the pair of them. "Prove where your loyalties lie, Black. Bring me Loki."

Sirius sarcastically replied, "You sound like a crazy war lord, do you know that?"

Harry said, "I'll go with you, Sirius."

His godfather lost the boyish smile on his face and replied painfully, "Sorry, Pup. I don't think you should."

"NO. I'm coming."

"Who said you're not coming...I'm not going to leave you in this sort of company." Fury made a noise of outrage from his place.

"I'm just saying, that you get to stay in the plane. We're going by a plane aren't we?"

Fury drawled, "Yeah, SHIELD Quinjet. By your unease in saying the word 'plane', I get it that your people have not heard of them."

"Nah, we know planes. We came here peacefully only because we know. You don't know some people of our world..." Sirius trailed off, and Harry knew he was thinking of Lucius Malfoy, and he shuddered at the mental image of a Malfoy on a muggle plane."

"-besides, we've brooms, and oh, we also have flying carpets."

Harry grinned at the gobsmacked expression of everyone present in the room.

* * *

Harry sat motionless besides his godfather on a seat, with Captain America across the other one. He kept throwing glances at the two pilots, Natasha and someone named Kelso...and then at the dark sky outside. Harry heard Cap mutter, "Why is it always Germany?" once, and concluded that it had to do something with his time in WWII. He thought about Grindelwald and his horrific reign around that period in his world, and Dumbledore's duel. He tried to imagine what the duel could have been like, and wondered if he would have to fight Voldemort like that later. He was not ready, not confident even with the increased amount of power coursing through his veins.

Natasha called, "We're there. Bad news. A crowd is there, with...multiple versions of Loki." The last part was said in a low voice, and Harry felt slightly uneasy. He knew enough from Norse legends that Loki was a master trickster. How could they fight someone creating illusions...

"CAP, your turn. Black, you should accompany him, I'm opening the exit!"

Sirius turned to him, brushing his palms on his cheeks, and whispered, "I'll be back with a nutter named Loki. You stay here! Don't leave."

Nodding silently, he saw Cap besides him, the stars and stripes on his suit magnificent even in the dim light. He was holding his circular shield tightly, and Harry said, "Steve, let me do a nice modification to that."

Captain looked down at his shield and extended it. "What do you have in your mind?"

"A modified summoning spell, which will attract the shield to your hand once you flex your wrists."

"Um- thanks. Although I take care that the shield reflects back after a blow, but this will come in handy."

The door opened loudly with sounds of a gunfire, and air whipped inside, making violent sounds like a storm. Cap gave an all clear sign with his right thumb and index finger, before jumping off the plane. Sirius winked at him, and muttered the Cushioning charm on himself. Then he too left the safety of the Quinjet, leaving Harry to worry behind.

There was some kind of drama going on the ground, and Harry heard Steve's voice crackling on the SHIELD radio. "Y'know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

A moment later he heard a cold and playful voice, booming, "The Soldier...a man out of time."

Apparently Sirius had floated over to the ground, because he heard his voice, one with an edge in it. "The last time I was in Germany, I well...I created quite a ruckus that involved fire, stone pillars and lots of food."

Harry shook his head, bewildered, while Cap muttered, "I'm not the one who's out of time."

He heard Loki's voice again. "Interesting...the Seidhr haven't been seen on Midgard since centuries... I can see your powerful magical aura...who are you, Sorcerer?"

'What the heck is a Seidhr?'

Natasha made an annoyed sound and turned on a switch, before announcing on the speaker, "LOKI. DROP THE WEAPONS, AND STAND DOWN!"

Just then, Loki raised his funny sceptre and fired a thick jet of blue light, forcing the pilots to swerve wildly. Harry lost his balance and fell on the floor by the maneuvers of the plane, and he got to his feet, as Cap and Sirius engaged into battle with a certain Liesmith. Sirius fired stunners in quick succession, which Loki dodged with superhuman reflexes, and Cap threw his shield, which Loki blocked with his sceptre.

Glad to have done the spell, Harry breathed a sigh of relief when Cap got his shield to fly back into his hands as Loki attacked him, forcing the super-soldier to roll on the ground. Meanwhile, Sirius' spells fell short of their mark as Loki created an illusion that dueled with Sirius using raw bursts of magic.

He heard Natasha mutter, "The guy's all over the place..."

Harry frowned. He felt like Loki was not trying hard enough to beat his opposition. He was the freaking God of trickery, and he wasn't even playing with Sirius and Cap. He demanded, "Natasha, what's so special in this building that Loki's here?"

She seemed to ponder a little, because she fell silent for a while. "Iridium...oh no! This is a distraction."

She shouted something on the radio, leaving Harry to his theories. Loki wouldn't come here and wreak havoc in a random city. He didn't even know what iridium was...sounded like some metal. He said calmly, "Wait. I'll go investigate."

She raised an eyebrow, and said, "Really, kid. Stay here as your godfather said. We'll handle this."

"By the time your people arrive Loki's scheme will be successful. I'm going."

Without waiting for her reply, he disapparated.

He appeared inside a huge hall inside the building, which contained a big sculpture in the middle. A man was lying motionless on it, and he slowly approached him. A stab of revulsion and anger went through his body when he saw that the man's right eye had been gouged...violently. Feeling sick, he disapparated again, appearing besides a man, a kind of a guard, who was dead. An arrow was sticking out of his body, and with a jolt Harry realized that this was the work of SHIELD's agent which Fury told them about. Hawkeye.

He sprinted across the large corridor, and found a small empty room. He was late. He dashed across the corner of the corridor, turning to see a figure getting out of the building by a door at the end of the passage. He disapparated and his feet slammed into the ground, just a few feet away from the man, who was holding a bow in one hand and a glass container in the other.

The man heard the sound of his feet, and whipped around in a flash, setting the container behind him gently and taking out a gun in just a second.

Before the loud BANG he'd shouted, "_PROTEGO!_" and the bullets fell silently to the shiny floor. Hawkeye took out an arrow from a quiver that was slung across his shoulders, and notching an arrow, let it loose.

With a whizzing noise the arrow impacted on his invisible shield, and he grew a little relaxed. The arrow exploded with a BOOM.

His shield was torn down, but it absorbed most of the impact, but the force was still enough to slam him into a wall. He slid to the floor, feeling a little woozy after taking the hit. But when he saw his opponent taking out another arrow, he swiftly raised his wand and cried, "_STUPEFY!_"

With an unnatural grace, Hawkeye dodged the red jet of light, and Harry fired more, not wanting to give a chance. He yelled, "SNAP OUT OF IT, AGENT BARTON. YOU DON'T NEED TO FOLLOW THAT VOICE."

His exclamation didn't do anything, and he was reminded of Sirius' words about a huge concentration of dark magic residues inside the body. He desperately tried to think of a way to remove that, and dodged a normal arrow that came his way. Then instinctively, the answer hit him. The Patronus Charm. It was pure magic!

Raising his wand, he spoke, "_Expecto patronum!_"

Without the presence of dementors' inhibition, a colossal silver stag erupted out of the tip of his wand, and charged Hawkeye. Its antlers hit his chest, and waves of happiness seemed to radiate off the stag. Harry could feel them because of his new abilities clearly. To his delight, Hawkeye's body grew limp, and his eyes glowed blue, before assuming their natural color, which was a peaceful shade of blue. His form slump on the ground, breathing heavily.

Harry cautiously approached the man, who raised his head, and rasped, "Who are you?"

Guiltily, Harry stunned him for good measure and bound him in conjured ropes. He scooped up the container which most probably contained iridium. Just then, two men, dressed in black jumpsuits entered the building through the doorway. On seeing him, they raised their guns. But Harry was way too fast for them. He grabbed Agent Barton's hand, and disapparated. **[1]**

* * *

**End of Chapter-2**

**(A/N):** Hey everyone, thanks for the wonderful response so far. First of all, I want to clear any kind of confusion about the 'travel'. This isn't conventional time travel. Harry and Sirius are pulled to this dimension by the Tesseract, which is active in the present time. So, by my theory, Harry could have found himself in any time when the Tesseract was active, which gives the time as approximately 1005 years ago when Odin left it on the Earth, or World War II when Red Skull was using it. But as the Other said, the Tesseract is working now as it never will, making the present time in Marvel Cinematic Universe the most probable time for Harry to appear there.

Fury doesn't know much about the wizarding world...only small things that Sirius told him. I left out the conversation because I felt that no one would like to see basic details about the magical world repeated, and you can imagine the conversation details.

[1]- I know that you can't do Side-Along Apparition like that, but Harry's powers are a little different. Along with empathetic abilities, he can apparate ignoring restricting wards or basic rules of magic.

From now, the plot will deviate a little from the movie. Clint is back, and Loki hasn't got his hands on the iridium, so I might be able to increase the story's period to extend over a few days, unlike the Avengers which seemed to be set across two days only.

Someone anonymously flaming the story was kind enough to remind me that I didn't use logic at all in case of Harry's behavior, the students' injuries and Dumbledore's talk with them. I thank you, for I admit that I made a mistake in the previous chapter by including Tonks, who had to be hospitalized after the battle, and I've corrected it. The students' injuries were not serious, and they were immediately patched up by Madam Pomfrey, with only Hermione having to fell some pain; welts in case of Ron. Many hours have passed since Harry's disappearance, and everyone was fit enough to go to the headmaster's office.

Dumbledore told them the prophecy because the Daily Prophet would already print incomplete facts the next day about the Chosen One, and whatever anyone thinks, Dumbledore is questionable for his acts by the community. To explain about the disappearance of Harry, he needed to explain the power of love, and this power came from where? He had to divulge the contents of the prophecy to the Order's trusted members, and feeling that the children deserved the truth, he told them first.

Tell me what you thought of this chapter. You can of course, review, and you can also PM me and I'll get back to you ASAP. Until next time, then.

* * *

Up next, on Harry Potter: A New Universe -

Harry watched with growing anticipation as Tony opened the exit door. Steve yelled in the wind, "What are you doing?"

Just then, a lone figure dropped onto the jet's floor. Tony moved forward to meet him, and Harry saw that their visitor was wearing medieval clothes with a red cape fluttering in the strong wind. Outside, lightning continued to flash, and the sky was covered with the noisy thunderclaps.

Before anyone could do anything. the man struck Tony's chest plate with his hammer, throwing him back forcefully. He grabbed Loki by the neck, and turned to leave. Harry was the first to recover from the shock. He shouted, "_Expelliarmus_!"

The hammer flew into the air, but curved in mid air, landing back in the outstretched palm of their visitor. He glared at Harry, and boomed, "Stay out of this, young Seidhr."

Then he spun the hammer in his hand, and flew into the dark sky covered with white streaks of lightning.

* * *

P.S- You know what to do. Hit that Review button.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters. All rights go to their respective owners, and no money is being made off this.

Note:

Thoughts- 'thought'

Spells(italic)- "_Expelliarmus!_"

Flashback/Disjoint Scene - Bold text

* * *

Previously, on Harry Potter: A New Universe -

Harry and Sirius meet the Avengers, gearing up for the hunt for Loki. Meanwhile, back home Ron discovers that Harry's invisibility cloak is missing, and informs Dumbledore, who is intrigued by the phenomenon. Sirius and Captain America fight Loki in Stuttgart, while Harry figures out that he's only being a distraction. He goes off inside the building, and after a fight with Barton, manages to subdue him and remove the mind control from him, also recovering the iridium in the process.

* * *

**Harry Potter: A New Universe**

**Chapter 3**

* * *

**Location: Stuttgart, Germany  
**

Harry's feet slammed onto the polished floors of the empty hall where Loki had gatecrashed a beautiful evening about half an hour ago. Besides him, Clint Barton rolled on the ground, unconscious by his stunner. He pointed his wand at his sprawled yet stiff body because of his ropes, and whispered, "Mobilicorpus!"

With a flourish of the wand, Barton floated over to one feet over the ground by his side, and he paced to the huge entrance in front of him, the agent's body hovering like Remus once had Snape's.

Descending the rather flattered steps outside the building, Harry saw that the Quinjet had landed and Sirius, Cap and someone in a red-gold armor he could only assume to be Iron Man, were towering over Loki, the latter's hands raised in surrender. Natasha came out of the jet, throwing Loki a dirty look.

He caught up with the crowd, all the members of which gaped at him, Loki included. Sirius broke off the gathering, shouting, "Harry! Where did you go? What are you doing outside? Who's this man?"

Natasha was the next to speak. Her eyes widened when she saw the man, her eyes registering an emotion akin to...gratitude. Harry was confused.

"It's Barton...what have you done with him?"

He snorted, giving her an incredulous look. "The question should be other way round. I broke the control over him, but had to tie him just for safety," he finished lightly, giving a wry smile.

Meanwhile, Sirius' shouts were painfully ringing in his ears, and he found himself getting very annoyed. He seethed, "Just quit it...this was a ploy to distract you and thank me that we got back whatever Loki wanted to steal, along with rescuing him from grovelling at Loki's feet!"

"Wait, how did you cure him? That takes too much power, and you don't even know the counter-curse...heck, even I don't know-"

"My patronus did the trick," he said, attempting to stop the flow of power through his body, which was expanding by his anger.

Silence. Then Sirius broke into laughter, and between rough gasps he said, "Aaand once again you come up with a simple, yet profitable solution that no one thought of. You gotta quit this habit of being the first to do things your way."

He grinned back, and Natasha looked at them oddly as if worried for Sirius' sanity. Harry was glad that Sirius' annoyance had vanished...that was why he liked his godfather so much. Meanwhile, Cap and Iron Man hauled off Loki and were pushing him to climb into the jet. Loki turned his head slightly, and his blue eyes found the emerald green irises, giving a smirk in his direction. Harry frowned, noticing that for a second the blue color was replaced by green, displaying hurt and anger in them, and he thought that he was looking at a different person. Then the blue was back, with the evil persona in place. **[1]**

Iron Man left Loki to Cap's and the pilot and came back to their group, the metallic mask opening with a metallic groan and a click. Harry said, "Hello, Mr. Tony Stark. I'm Harry."

"Please, kid. No one called me Mister. Tony. Stark. Call me Tony. Glad to meet you, and I must inform you that I still don't believe in the story Fury told me. Dimensional travel, yes. Wizards, not quite."

He raised a sarcastic eyebrow, and said, "Then how do you believe I'm levitating this unconscious man?"

"Levitating," Tony snorted. "Harry, this tool you have here must be a device to modify energy. Energy can neither be created, nor be destroyed, but it can change forms. Have you heard about this?" Tony asked as if teaching something to a five year old.

He replied, "Indeed...and you believe my wand is a sophisticated machine?"

"Not a machine, but it should have something in its core. If you let me analyze it-"

"It has a phoenix feather in the core."

Tony opened his mouth, and closed it, seeming lost for a reply. Then he said, "You didn't tell your full name. Harry what?"

"Just Harry."

"Harry Houdini?" Tony's lips curled up in faint amusement, though Harry could see that the man was appraising him silently.

"Er, no. It's Harry Potter, and seeing is believing Tony."

"I'm seeing...still working on believing."

He replied sympathetically, "I know. When I was informed I thought it was a hidden camera show and someone was going to jump and reveal them."

Tony waggled his eyebrows. "My thoughts exactly."

Sirius patted Harry's back lightly. "Enough chit-chat. You'll get plenty of time for that once we get back."

Harry didn't tell anyone about the shrunken glass container that was in her pocket, containing the second most dense metal on Earth...of course, Harry didn't know that. Skeptical about the whole scheme of Loki, he didn't want to let him see that he had foiled his plans, and intended on giving the object back to Fury later. He hoped to appease the director by that.

They boarded the jet, and Harry set Barton on the floor on a spot near the cockpit. The exit door closed with a loud hiss as the chamber sealed, and the Quinjet took off into the night sky.

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Helicarrier**

"Director, we cannot afford to risk subjugation while you continue your reckless antics."

Nick Fury gritted his teeth, inwardly wanting to lash out at the World Council members. He calmly replied, "Antics? This is not a mock drill, council men. We are at war! The whole idea behind this was to have people that could fight a battle that we never could."

"Do you have any proof behind this talk of alternate universes?"

"No, but-"

"Haven't you considered the fact that all this might be an elaborate trick from a foreign world to double cross us?"

"Yeah, it might be."

"Then you should-"

"Now listen here," he said in a deadly low voice. "Our current priority is to get back the Tesseract. We have no choice but to take them on their word, so for now, I'm willing to use their help. Not to mention that past hour I got news that they apprehended Loki successfully and broke his mind-control on one of our best agents. I'll keep my end of the bargain, if they keep theirs."

One of the representatives he least liked spoke up, "That's all well and good director, if you get your idea of this band of merry men to actually work, and retrieve the cube from Loki. Otherwise, we might have to rethink our decision of leaving this in your hands."

Others murmured in argument. Another said, "I agree. The army would have been a much better idea."

He wearily replied, "We've gone over this already. The regular army is hopelessly outmatched against such threats."

"Then use the opportunity, director. Try and use this 'magic' to develop our technology. The implications of this power are brighter than the Tesseract! If they actually are allies, then consider the vast potentials of the energy they could provide us with."

"I see," he muttered disgustedly. "But unfortunately, they want to leave as soon as we get the cube. They're not exactly here for sight seeing..."

"Then...delay their departure?"

He fumed, "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." With that, he closed the screen and turned to leave the room. Agent Hill was waiting for him, giving him her thick pensive look. She said, "They're on their way back. Expected to return in two hours."

He nodded his acknowledgement. Raising his communicator, he established contact to Natasha.

"Agent Romanoff do you copy?"

A few seconds later, she replied, "Yes, sir."

"Got him without any trouble? Agents posted there have reported missing iridium."

"Barton is still unconscious. And yeah, got two wizards, a super soldier, one snarky git watching Loki."

"Hmm...is he saying anything?"

"Not a word."

"Just get him here...we're low on time."

* * *

Harry was trying to look anywhere but at Loki's face. He couldn't pinpoint the source of his anxiety, but Loki got on his nerves a bit. He got the feeling that the trickster was scrutinizing him, trying to study him, and that made him irritated beyond measure. He focused on his godfather, who was conversing animatedly with Tony.

"So you're seriously Serious, or Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky?"

"Well, they named me after the Dog Star, but I'm not serious at all."

Tony smirked. "Ah...I love the puns."

Steve was watching their banter with quiet amusement, and Harry grinned at him, getting one in return. His gaze fell on the windshield of the jet, and to his surprise a brilliant white flashes branched into the night sky, dazzling them from their reveries. A second later the first thunder clap had reached his ears, and by the narrow gap between those two Harry felt that the source clouds were close. He didn't know the reason behind his fear, which was bubbling in his stomach, but as the intensity of light grew, the Quinjet was bathed by the luminous streaks of lightning.

"Why is this coming..." Natasha muttered worriedly. He noticed that Loki's neutral mask had fell, his eyebrows quirked up in nervousness. Besides him, Steve spoke, "What? Scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows."

The proclamation did nothing to calm Harry's mood. They all caught each other's eyes, raising silent questions. Just then, the chamber shook violently as something...someone...whatever thudded loudly on the roof. Seven heads snapped upwards, as another burst of thunder rolled through the air, stronger than the previous ones. Tony picked up his helmet and put it on, tiny quadrilaterals of light illuminating the eyes. Steve also pulled his mask over his face, while Sirius whispered worriedly, "Wands out, Harry."

To Harry's surprise, Iron Man stepped forward, and opened the exit, sending air into the aircraft like gales.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Cap shouted. Sirius yelled immediately after, "YEAH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Taking no notice of their shouts, Iron Man stood like a sentry, waiting for anything to happen. Then dramatically, a huge figure dropped gracefully in front of the billionaire, wearing some kind of medieval armor, a red cape fluttering in the wind.

Before any of them could say anything to their visitor, he'd raised a big hammer and struck Iron Man on the chest, throwing him away forcefully. He took a long stride and grabbed Loki by the neck, and turned to leave. Surprised that Sirius hadn't done anything yet, Harry yelled, "_Expelliarmus!_"

The hammer flew out of the hand of the man, but curved in mid air and returned to the waiting palm of its owner. The man turned regally, and eyed him curiously. Then he boomed, "Stay out of this, whoever you are, young Seidhr."

He made a face, as his brilliant plan had failed and he had no idea what the word meant. He obviously thought that if he took away that hammer, Cap would be free to take him down. But he'd already started to spin the hammer in his hand. Just as he took the first step in the opposite direction, Sirius raised his wand. "_LOCOMOTOR MORTIS!_"

The mystery man attempted to fly, and leap into the air. But the leg locker jinx made him stumble down, and Harry was reminded of his first attempt at throwing off the Imperius curse. If the situation wasn't tense, he might have laughed. But it seemed like he'd gained enough momentum, as he rolled off the Quinjet along with Loki, disappearing into the night sky which was still covered with bright streaks of lightning.

"Now there's that guy..." Iron Man had recovered from the blow, getting to his feet slowly as he muttered incoherent words.

"Another Asgardian?"

"This guy's a friendly?" Cap asked, to which Iron Man replied calmly. "Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract is lost." He then moved on to the wide exit, preparing himself for the pursuit.

Cap shouted, "Stark, we need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan. Attack!"

With that, he blasted off into the sky, and Sirius rolled his eyes, while Cap shook his head disdainfully. Harry said, "Nice one, Sirius. But wrong TIMING."

His godfather replied sheepishly, "Normal magic like stunners won't work, Harry. Their skins are really tough like giants, as I already tried to stun him silently while you were not looking. I needed a physical spell, or an elemental one. But sometimes, the simplest jinxes are the most effective. I hadn't counted on the hammer thingy though..."

They moved towards the exit, while Cap scooped a parachute. Harry looked down into the darkness, maintaining a safe distance from the edge. His knees tingled slightly at the sight of the unending darkness, only marred by a pin point of Iron Man's thruster light.

Harry asked the super soldier, "Fancy a lift?"

"No thanks. I might get uncomfortable by your methods of travel."

Harry kept his mouth shut. He didn't tell him, or Sirius of the fact that he'd apparated Barton successfully with him. Meanwhile, Natasha flicked a switch over her head and muttered, "I'd sit this one out, Cap. Let them handle it."

"I don't see how I can."

"These guys come from legends...they're basically gods."

"There's only one God ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress up like that." Harry snickered, and they stood in front of the gaping blackness. Harry and Sirius disapparated with a thin 'pop', and Cap took a leap into the sky.

* * *

"-I've grown in my exile, Odinson. I've seen-"

Harry felt his feet slam into the grass, and opened his eyes to see Loki and his kidnapper, the latter gaping at him. Sirius apparated besides him, adding to the surprise in the man's face. Apparating to the exact location was easy. The Asgardian had left a massive electric surge, easily traceable even to young wizards like them.

Sirius swiftly took charge, shouting, "Who are you? You've no right abducting our prisoner, even if he's your acquaintance. His crimes directly affect our world..."

Harry noticed the tall, broad shouldered man's eyes show sorrow on the word 'acquaintance', and he interrupted Sirius loudly. "Back off, please. On behalf of Asgard I am honored to meet you...as your kind haven't been seen for many centuries and they were our allies. But Loki will face Asgardian justice."

A bright beam of light passed them, and landed on the grass with a thump. Iron Man said, "He gives up the cube he's all yours. Until then, stay out of the way."

Harry was beginning to get worried. Hostile approach won't help in the slightest. Sirius said, "Please confirm who you-"

"Thor. The crown prince of Asgard."

Loki snorted darkly at this, and everyone looked at him oddly. Harry said, "Pleased to meet you, Thor," he bowed for effect. "The god of thunder. Harry Potter, pleased to meet you." He didn't know why he was spouting such nonsense, but a little politeness surely won't go amiss. He knew little of Norse deities in his world, but he knew that Thor was sometimes known to be vain. Loki smirked, raising his hands and said, "Why dear brother, we've to cut this meeting short. I have certain 'obligations'."

A few seconds later, Cap had joined them and Thor was looking more and more impatient. He boomed, "Leave! You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Uh-Shakespeare in the park...doth mother know you wear-eth her drapes?"

Sirius growled in frustration. "Tony! You're not helping in the slightest."

Cap lifted his hands in a placating gesture. "Why don't we discuss this somewhere else, peacefully? Please put that hammer down-"

Harry knew it was the wrong thing to say, because Thor's face darkened and he snarled, "You want me to put the hammer down!?"

The hammer was raised, and Loki looked gleeful for a moment, to the absolute wonder of Harry. He could feel a disturbance in the air, and smelt the ionized air. The brightest beam of lightning collected on the head of the hammer, and Harry knew what he was going to do. As fear bubbled inside him, his mind instinctively calmed itself and power rose within him. Something grew inside him as the air around him heated over comfort level. He wasn't aware, that his green irises were glowing in the night, for if he was, he would have been afraid of himself. He raised his wand without thinking, and yelled, " _METEOLOJINX RECANTO!_" **[2]**

Thousands of amperes of electric current dissipated into thin air, allowing him some relief. He looked aside, and chuckled weakly at the look on Sirius' face.

"Harry? What-how? So much power!"

He replied hesitantly, "Moody- well, his impostor did this once on the Great Hall ceiling."

"HARRY! That spell is meant for dispelling minor weather charms, not to stop actual lightning. How much power did you use? You could suffer from severe magical exhaustion..."

"But I feel fine...?"

His godfather scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion. "Are you serious? Because- no. Don't even think of saying, 'you are'."

"Honestly Sirius, I'm fine. I just saved everyone's life."

Iron Man piped up, "My suit is electricity resistant, thank you very much."

Loki sneered at Thor. "Go on, esteemed brother. Kill the people under your protection. You call me ill-suited, when you lose control of your pathetic temper everyday?"

Thor flashed a look of annoyance towards his brother, and directed his words to Harry. "I apologize. It was not my intention to kill anyone."

"Yeah, you just wanted to maim, or seriously injure," Harry grinned. Cap and Sirius backed away, sporting horrified and curious looks when Thor smiled wickedly.

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Helicarrier**

After Loki was sent to a specially designed cell, all of them assembled in a room with a round table like that in the fallout shelter. Harry guessed that this was the debriefing room. He had handed the iridium case to Fury, who was surprised and told him that field agents there had reported it stolen by Loki's minions. Harry just grinned back good naturedly, causing Fury to mutter something about secretive teenagers.

Thor was gazing curiously at his face from across the table. He was folding his arms over his chest, with an unreadable look on his face. When he caught Harry's gaze he said, "If I may ask young Seidhr, how did the scar on your forehead originate?"

He sighed. His scar stood out like a sore thumb anywhere he went, heck, even Norse deities were poking their heads around. He replied, "Ava-er, a deadly spell hit and rebounded because of a protection charm."

Thor nodded thoughtfully, and said, "I'm not adept at these things, but your scar is a remarkable replica of the sól rune. Have you any knowledge about that?"

"Er-no. I know next to nothing about it, because I'm the only one to have such a mark in our world."

"It's a symbol for the light, victory, strength, likewise...It's even a greater honor to meet someone with your caliber, as you are definitely destined for great things."

"Great," he murmured. Sirius, however, was frowning slightly, and said, "Are you sure...Thor?"

"I'm completely sure, Sirius Black. I admit that I am very curious about the realm you come from, even if it's of another universe. Now that I pay attention, I can sense death around you...how in the world..."

Harry sharply said, "What?"

Thor let his hands swing down and replied a little sadly. "Your world must have greater horrors than this one, travelers, for you've certainly been in the realm of Hel. Am I right?"

Harry was thinking hard about the only possible reason. The veil. But to really have a concrete reason to believe that Sirius had really died...

"Excuse me, but I didn't get you clearly."

"You have the aura of death around yourself, Sirius Black. If Brunnhilde was here she could have seen the death glow around you."

"Who's Brunnhilde?" Sirius asked in confusion.

"She leads the Valkyrior. She was chosen by the Allfather...other details are rather unnecessary. But she can transport the dying individuals to the realm of dead, and can see the approach of death."

Harry took long calming breaths. This wasn't happening. Sirius was standing there, as healthy as ever and here Thor was announcing his death. Before they could talk further, Natasha had increased the volume of the feed from Loki's cell, or cage, and Harry was grateful for the distraction.

"-Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh I've heard; a mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you? That you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Oooh, it burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power. Unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is. Even with the might of magic wielders by your side, you will soon realize how hopeless a cause...yours is."

Harry saw that Bruce was trying to appear unconcerned at the jab on him being mindless. Everyone else was staring with disgust at the screen.

"...well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."

Finally, Bruce broke the silence. "He really grows on you doesn't he?"

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor. What's his play?"

"He has an army, called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard or of any world known. He means to lead them into battle against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect for the Tesseract."

"An army," Steve said lightly. "From outer space."

Harry felt a stab of pity for the man. He couldn't imagine how difficult it would be to cope with, after waking seventy years into the future.  
Bruce added, "So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

Thor said, "Selvig," slightly alarmed.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend," Thor replied in a confused yet determined tone.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, the same spell Harry cured our Agent Barton from."

Sirius had remained tight lipped for the greater part of the meeting. It was almost as if he'd given the controls to Harry. As much as he was irritated by this background show of Sirius, he liked the freedom, after spending fifteen, wait, almost sixteen years of his life in darkness.

"-He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted," Thor said quickly, and Harry snorted.

"-Iridium. What do they need the iridium for?" Bruce was saying thoughtfully.

"Stabilizing agent!"

They all turned around, as Tony made his rather dramatic appearance.

* * *

**Location: Hogwarts**

"Honestly Ronald, did you not bother to look once again before running off to Dumbledore?"

Hermione Granger was glaring at Ron, who was protesting rather loudly in front of all the students. "I did, and I told you. It was not there."

She smoothed her robes, before taking a deep breath and continuing, "Let's take this somewhere else, shall we?" They left the common room and climbed the stairs to the boys dormitory. Inside, she could hear Ron saying, "Mate, could you wait outside for a few minutes?

"Sure." She was greeted by the not so shy face of Neville disappearing down the stairs, and she went inside. Ron said, "Look, I searched thoroughly, and it was not there. If Dumbledore agreed, I don't see how you don't believe me Mione."

She put her hands on her hips and said, "Well, maybe Dobby got it, maybe someone took it. All you thought was that the cloak disappeared off to Harry?"

"Yes!" Ron replied in an annoyed voice. "Do you see any better alternative? Because obviously Dobby didn't get it, I asked him in the kitchens. I'm not that of a fool. I checked everywhere before going to Dumbledore."

She said exasperatedly, "But that doesn't make sense. The cloak disappeared like him? C'mon Ron. He can't..."

She trailed off uncomfortably. Ron had a look of concern on his face. "I know Mione," he said gently. "I know you don't want to believe this, but we have to consider all the possibilities. Anything. Anything unusual related to Harry is a clue."

She chuckled and gave him a small smile. "When did you grow up?"

The red haired boy smiled weakly. "Someone had to do it?"

"Oh, really..." she rolled her eyes. Then she muttered, "But sometimes, the simplest spells are the most effective. Did you try the point me spell?"

Ron's face lit up, and he said excitedly, "Are you thinking of checking Harry's direction?"

"No," she huffed. "It is supposed to work on simpler magical objects than conscious beings. Now let's see. Point Me, Invisibility Cloak!"

Her wand spun on her palm, and ended up pointing towards the a distinct corner of the room. She began to laugh.

"What?" Ron asked in confusion.

"It's pointing to Harry's bed, Ron. I told you someone would have recovered it. Maybe another house elf...they're slaves for this type of work after all. You checked everywhere except the most obvious place."

Ron appeared determined, not willing to back down. He said, "I'm checking first."

After a couple of minutes, Ron had reluctantly sifted through Harry's trunk, looking for the silvery cloth, but had no success. Hermione was astonished. She had counted on the cloak being there, just as a tiny hope, but it had failed. She cast, "_Accio cloak!_"

"Won't work," Ron said. "Dumbledore said that it was special."

She sighed, and raised her wand again. "Well then, maybe... _Specialis Revealo!_"

A diminished glow rose from the base of the trunk, before a bunch of softer lights covered the magical items inside. She said sharply, "What's in that package?"

Ron put his hand inside and took out a package. He said nervously, "We shouldn't be opening this."

"I know, but this is important. Go on. I was casting it with special emphasis on the cloak. So the package must have some clue to the cloak."

Ron ripped off the wrapping paper to reveal a mirror and a parchment inside. He unrolled it and read swiftly, before handing it to her.

She said after some time, "You were right. The cloak is not here. Maybe the spell was wrong or something. It's not made for aiming at particular objects anyways."

They put the mirror back, along with the letter, and closed the trunk. She turned to leave, when an idea struck her. "Ron, the other mirror belongs to Sirius, isn't it?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So maybe the cloak went to him, in the...veil. That veil looked similar to the cloak's material."

"But that doesn't make sense. The cloak was Harry's."

She wrung her hands nervously. "What if, Harry and the cloak went there too?"

He seemed on the edge of blowing off, eyes Shaking her shoulders, he said, "Hermione listen. Harry did not enter the veil. Unless we have proof, everything is speculation. Don't make scenarios in your mind."

"Then perhaps we could, talk to...Sirius, by the mirror." she knew she sounded stupid, but the plea in her voice was recognizable even to herself.

"Er...no. Two way mirrors don't absorb the personality of the owner, though many people have tried to make them so, like magical mirrors."

"Yeah, sorry," she tiredly replied. "It was a childish thought. But...a day has passed now with us having no clue about him. So I just- " She let out a breath slowly. "Good night, Ron."

"Good night, Hermione. He'll come back, from wherever he is. Don't worry."

She didn't say anything. Silence said everything for her.

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Helicarrier**

Harry and Sirius stayed in the debriefing room after everyone had left. Harry wanted to go and help others in tracking down the Tesseract, so that he could return home quickly. He wondered if Ron and Hermione were bickering now like usual, or grieving for him. Even Dumbledore was out of the picture this time, Harry mused.

Jarring him from his thoughts, Sirius said, "Harry, it's really late. You should go take some rest."

He raised an eyebrow. "And why, may I ask? I'm perfectly fine."

"I know," Sirius said sagely, and Harry wanted to laugh at his expression. "But something tells me tomorrow won't be a day of peace, so get all the rest you can. Besides, you haven't slept till...what, 24 hours?"

"Actually, I didn't even sleep properly the night before exam, cramming everything. So, make that two days, but I'm not tired. I can still-"

Sirius gently replied, "Your eyelids are drooping, Pup. Let me take you to a room. And don't worry about any of these things. Others are working on that. Our only job is to assist, not worry for the safety of an alternate universe."

"Huh?"

Sirius stood up from his seat. "Let's go. At the moment you're looking drop dead gorgeous."

"Padfoot, that was the lamest thing I've ever heard."

After a few minutes, Sirius had put Harry to sleep on a bunk bed inside a small room fury had given them. Harry felt oddly at peace, his entire body relaxing the moment he left resisting to the allure of sleep.

Sirius smiled at him, ruffling his hair lovingly and said, "Not the best of bedrooms, but try to get some rest. We'll talk later."

"Sirius?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"I want to talk about my power...I feel strangely powerful sometimes, due to magical surges. When caught up in emotions I feel like I'm in command, like I'd do...anything."

He saw that Sirius was waiting for more. So he continued, "You remember the snake incident at Christmas?"

At a small nod, he said, "I wonder if my power is getting out of control. I asked it that time and I'll ask it again. Is this connection...making me like Voldemort? It's really hard to keep check of my emotions and I feel like I'll blow up any second."

"Harry, what did I tell you? You. Are. Nothing like that monster. As for the power you are concerned about, this might be, er- good news, in a way. It means that you're attaining maturity and you'll be a powerful wizard in the fut-"

"No, Sirius you're not getting my point," he continued heatedly. There it was, again. He calmed down and said, "I suddenly can feel emotions of people. I mastered spells that would have taken me at least a week to master...this is not any normal occurrence. These surges make me think I can take down Voldemort, or even Dumbledore, and win without breaking a sweat. Do you think that's normal?"

"I'm afraid Harry that we don't have answers to any of these questions, and we won't get any before we go back. So I can only ask you to try and improvise."

"Improvise?"

"Exert control. Meditation. Control is your best bet for your concerns. And you can meditate for that. I'll help you tomorrow, but close and eyes and rest for now. Good night."

"Good night, and I hope that I wish you a good night in our world next," Sirius said with a chuckle. He nodded curtly, watching Sirius leave the room. He then took out a melted knife from his pocket, the present from Sirius that was now irreparable. He continued to watch it intently, everything else in the room being too boring. He wondered if prisoners and agents got the same room, smiling as the absurdity of the notion hit him. His fingers traced the edge of the melted blade, and a tingle went through his wrist. He wanted to repair the knife, and why shouldn't he do it? He had the power, which begged to be released. Giving in to the urge, he focused on the knife as the twisted metal took shape again, and the knife was good as new. Alarmed by the waves of power now rolling in his body, he thanked God it was just a knife. His control was waning, the power itching to be unleashed. He decided to close his eyes.

* * *

Sirius left the room, heading to the laboratory where Bruce was supposed to be working. He was trying hard to keep himself together for Harry's sake, but he was getting increasingly nervous with every passing minute. He couldn't shake the fact away that they had no clue about their present dilemma and even if they got the Tesseract, he didn't know the path of return. But he had to take it in small steps. First was Loki, then the Tesseract, then maybe something would happen. Maybe.

The door before him slid open with a hiss and he entered the too well organized room, which was in sharp contrast to Grimmauld Palace.

"Any luck so far?" he asked politely.

Bruce got his head up from whatever he was looking at, and said, "Oh, Sirius...yeah, we're just trying to track the signature."

Tony Stark swiped something away on a touch screen, which was a fascinating technology for him. He said, "So, now to our little meeting. Are you seriously a wizard?"

He replied scornfully, "Yes, why?"

"Just asking. What does it feel like?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I mean, you talk of magic as a power. But for me, as a scientist, there is no such term as magic."

Slightly annoyed, he said, "Ignorance is not good for someone like you."

Tony chided, "Don't get me wrong, but we're of the philosophy that everything is energy. Anything, can be converted into anything. So, this magic, is nothing but energy in my opinion, and you, are able to command such changes. I'm just saying that the term 'magic' is rubbish. Nothing happens by magic, it's just a 'different' way of naming your methods."

"Maybe..." he shrugged. "So what were you guys discussing?"

Bruce said, "Well, we were kind of confused about the motivations of Fury here. The Tesseract might not be only required for sustainable energy here, you see?"

"Then for what?"

Tony left a table, munching something noisily. He said, "This is a spy organization, Sirius. To control peace in the world, what is the thing they would need?"

"Weapons?" He said tersely, and then the thought slowly developed roots in his mind.  
"What exactly, do you mean? Using unlimited power for horrifying weapons?"

"Ah, a smart one, Banner. I told you the Captain was painfully slow on uptakes. Any decent guy would see that there is an ulterior motive."

He raised an eyebrow, and said, "Why thank you...but why is Steve slow?"

Tony replied impassively, "Nothing, he just refused to acknowledge this simple fact and muttered some crap about following orders that are given to us. I don't believe the guy, I mean-"

He smiled. "-Well, he is partially correct. In our world too there are war like conditions. You have to follow the leader's orders, as that's your best chance at winning."

"There's is war in your world?" Bruce asked skeptically.

He debated whether he'd gone too far, or they deserved to know. He slowly said, "Yes, there's a man, like Hitler I presume. You had Hitler here?"

Tony grinned. "Looks like Adolf Hitlers are abound in all the worlds. Did he start a world war there too?"

"Yeah. After his time, a boy, who was powerful rose to commit atrocious deeds, practicing dark magic and came to be feared so much that people in our world refuse to say the name."

Bruce laughed quietly. "That sounds crazy. What's in a name?"

Tony piped up, "Don't add 'Shakespeare'. What's the point then?"

They shared a laugh, and Sirius continued, "So, this man is now our enemy. He has an army of sorts, with humans, and monsters and things like that."

Tony commented a little carefully, " So you have someone like Fury there?"

"No," he said, smirking. "But we have a person like him who has a magical eye instead of the patch."

"Better choice."

"Hmm, so we have our leader in the best wizard of this age. But he's somewhat sneaky at times, and mostly keeps the whole truth to himself. But we follow his orders, as his 'ulterior motives' are almost always successful and have happy endings, that sort of thing. That doesn't mean we pry into the secrets."

Tony popped another...blueberry in his mouth and said, "I'm not willing to be anyone's pawn, much less Fury's."

He laughed, thinking about James, who had said something similar to Dumbledore after graduating, when he'd asked the Marauders to join the Order. It had been hard to convince him that uniting against Voldemort was the best choice. Alone, they would have been picked off easily.

He saw the shiny scepter, laid on the glass behind them. It was rising up in the air, vibrating slowly. He barked, "Twelve o' clock. Is that supposed to be normal?"

Both of his acquaintances whipped around, as the scepter glowed in its brilliant blue light and hovered over to them. Tony and Bruce watched with horrid fascination, as the seemingly royal staff pointed itself towards Sirius, and shot off.

Everyone yelped and Sirius flicked his wand, which had sprung up into his hand. "_Impedimenta!_"

The scepter slowed, turning midways in air, coming slowly to rest in air near his feet, like a broom. He stared at it, bewildered, while others gaped at it. He said coolly, "That was dramatic."

Bruce laughed nervously, and Sirius could feel waves of power coming from the scepter. A sudden urge of longing went through him, to pick it up, to use the vast power linked through the Tesseract.

"Sirius?" Tony asked, worriedly.

"Wha-I'm fine," he broke his gaze abruptly. "This thing is dangerous," he added quietly.

Then, he put on a brave face and did a revealing charm on the scepter. After a second, he snapped, "_Finite Incantatem!_"

Tony and Bruce gave him questioning looks. He said loudly, "There was a tracking charm on this thing..."

Tony's look sharpened and he shot back, "Tracking? This scepter can be tracked? Wait, sort of like a transmitter?"

He nodded slowly. The billionaire swore loudly, and said, "This is it. I was wondering why Loki let us capture him ever since Cap asked me. The bastard wants the helicarrier to be found. Someone tell Fury! We could be attacked any minute!"

Worried by the sudden turn of events, Bruce nodded weakly. Sirius wasted no time, and disapparated to the control room.

* * *

He was seeing into the terrified eyes of the death eaters assembled. He was vengeful at the entire Ministry fiasco. The idiots would face his wrath, who had the guts to show their cowardly faces without bringing him any news. All, except Severus. His faithful spy had brought him info on the brat, who was safely hidden somewhere with Dumbledore of all people. But he hated being in the dark, and all of them would pay.

He'd not anticipated a move like this from the old coot, but maybe the blood traitor Black's death had affected the delicate Potter boy harshly. Inwardly amused, he wondered how the boy would have felt when he realized that he had been outsmarted, fooled by his brilliant plan.

He petted the cold, smooth skin of Nagini, before speaking in a deathly calm voice, "Leave!"

All of them looked at him with surprise and hope in their eyes. His lips curled up slightly. "Next time, I won't be so merciful...Am I understood?"

"Yes, my lord." Everyone scrambled out of the chamber before he could change his mind. His anger ebbing away slowly, he called, "Wormtail!"

The pathetic excuse for a man whimpered slightly before turning and presenting himself at his feet. "Y-yes, my lord?"

"I have a task for you, that even someone of your brain capacity should be able to perform. You better not, disappoint me..."

"Of course, my lord."

"You will go and get information on Harry Potter for me. I don't care how you do it, use your filthy form, just don't fail. Am I understood?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Good. Crucio!"

He smirked evilly as the man writhed in agony on the floor. After a few moments, he removed the curse and spoke silkily, "I hope this is...inspiring. Don't fail me, Wormtail, or that silver hand of yours might turn...suicidal...You're dismissed."

The man gulped in terror and hobbled away, leaving him alone in the chamber with Nagini. With no one present, his anger flared again. The prophecy, the prophecy! Everything came to it, and now it was gone. Lucius was lucky he was not on the receiving end of his rage, but he would get him out of Azkaban soon. He had the perfect plan to punish him, he thought, chuckling wickedly. Young Draco Malfoy would be the executioner, and he would be more than willing to be the judge.

With the world finally aware of his return, another plan of his was delayed. Now they were afraid...he would give them terror, if terror is what they expected from him. But first, the muggles...The Brockdale Bridge would be a nice target...

He was not himself. He was someone else. He was Harry, unable to move as he watched the scene unfold. The rage simmering inside was beyond his control. He needed to wake up. Harry Potter tried to undo sleep paralysis, but was unable to do so.

Then he screamed in pain from his scar.

* * *

**End of Chapter-3**

**(A/N): **I apologize for being late in posting this chapter. Life interfered with the writing...Weekly updates from now on.

I hope you liked Sirius POV, and the interaction between the characters. Barton will wake up soon, and because Loki doesn't have the iridium, Harry and team have some time to be prepared. But then, Loki isn't called the master trickster without any reason.

[1] To answer a question from the reviews- Harry would not think at first of using the Patronus on Loki, as he believes that Loki is doing these things of his free will. But, the seed of doubt has been planted in his mind.

[2] GoF movie, Barty Crouch doing the spell. I decided to take it for obvious reasons.

Tell me what you thought of this chapter. You can of course, review, or you can PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Until next time, then.

* * *

Next up, on Harry Potter: A New Universe

Harry has a 'chat' with Loki, which is too pleasant for his tastes. Back home, Dumbledore seems to unveil the mystery of the mirror.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters. All rights belong to the respective owners, and no money is being made off it.

Note:

Thoughts- 'thought'

Spells(italic)- "_Expelliarmus!_"

Flashback/Disjoint Scene - Bold text

* * *

↓ Previously, on Harry Potter: A New Universe ↓

The group returns back to the Helicarrier, and Thor joins them after a tussle. Sirius discovers a tracker on Loki's scepter, which alarms everyone. Meanwhile, Harry gets a vision of Voldemort's plans, back in their own world.

* * *

**Harry Potter: A New Universe**

**Chapter 4**

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Helicarrier  
**

"What the hell do you mean? That staff is a trap for us to willingly walk into?"

Sirius nodded, adding, "I found a tracking charm on it and Tony here deduced that there was no reason for Loki to surrender, apart from getting to know the location of our base."

Fury closed his eyes, muttering under his breath. He barked, "Agent Hill, set course to north. Get the hell out of this place before anything happens. Black, do you think Loki might himself try to sabotage the helicarrier?"

He shrugged. "This is a valid possibility, and I've considered it too. He can get out of the cell anytime he wants, then why is he waiting? His plan has already been messed up by us."

Thor boomed from across the room, "Not to alarm anyone, but I would like to point out that Loki is a master manipulator and an excellent wielder of magic. If I were you, I wouldn't hope on getting anything from him. As I already told you, there is no pain, no reward, no reasoning that would cause him to reveal the location of the Tesseract. The best solution would be to increase the pace of your operation."

The stern woman, who Sirius assumed had a name hill or something like that said, "Position set to be changed by a degree north, but about seventy miles won't change anything. Besides, we need to stay closer to New York, just for caution."

He shot back, "The Tesseract might be anywhere on the planet. It won't matter where you park your...er, helicarrier."

Agent Coulson said, "He's right. If Loki's planning to do something here, we should be ready to activate defensive mechanisms of the helicarrier. A better option would be to seal everything under the research section."

"Panicking now is not advisable. It's just a guess after all," Fury remarked lightly. "Change location as intended and monitor the readings inside the cell, and of the scepter."

"Yes sir, " she went back to the piloting system controllers, one of whom was playing a game. She shouted something harshly, and Sirius shook his head sympathetically for the poor guy.

"Black?"

He gave his charming smile to Fury and asked, "Yes, 'director'?

Fury's face was set in stone. "You better go check on Harry."

"Why? What happened?" he asked, his voice a little higher.

The director of SHIELD hit something and the screen swiveled around to align parallel to his face. A square box expanded on it, which showed the room where he'd left Harry. A look at the video and Sirius disapparated off to stop the nightmare his godson was having.

Behind him, Nick Fury sighed in the control room. "This will take time to get used to..."

* * *

His head was on fire, the pain searing across the lightning bolt scar. He wanted to pound his head on something, just to stop it. But he was unable to wake. He watched as a memory surfaced into the mind of the monster he was trapped into.

The sleek, thirteen inches wand of yew rose by his hand, no, not his. The horribly familiar green light shone throughout the dark room and he was ready to give everything to not witness whatever Voldemort was remembering. Surprisingly, he could feel glee...and anticipation. For some reason, he kept thinking about the corpses of his friends.

Harry was aware that he had no way of knowing what had happened after his untimely departure from the DoM. But Dumbledore had arrived. Everyone was safe, death eaters bound and captured. Voldemort wasn't even there as far as he knew. This was the beginning of a false memory, or a false idea, and as soon as he realized it rage built up inside him. Tired of this mind game, he lashed out within his mind like he had known Occlumency all along. He could feel the enemy's anticipation on whether he took the bait, but he was not going to fall for the same bloody trick twice. He sent back his own memory of being tortured by the Cruciatus of Voldemort himself.

Pain! He immersed himself in the memory of pain that he had witnessed a year ago in the graveyard, and to his satisfaction, the presence recoiled sharply, the pain from his scar dulling into nothingness.

Emerald eyes snapped open, staring hard at the ceiling. His breaths were ragged and he felt sick to his core. But for the first time, he delighted under his triumph over one of the best Legilimens in the world. Snape would be shocked beyond measure, he thought, slightly amused.

A soft pop signaled the arrival of Sirius. He turned his head slightly on the bed as Sirius dashed to his side, asking, "Harry, are you alright?"

"Yeah, but forget about me. Sirius, the connection is still very much alive in this world. Voldemort is planning to attack Muggles back there, and...and, he tried to feed me a false idea of him killing everyone," he finished quietly.

Sirius asked sharply, "False vision?"

"He was raging about how his followers were incompetent fools and the fact that Dumbledore had hidden me somewhere...yes, that's what he thinks. Then, I suppose he realized my presence, and reacted to it, expanding his anger and attacking me with - ideas. Honestly, like he thinks I'm going to believe it, the idiot."

"Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Your friends were not there while we were fighting."

"Oh."

He wanted to retort something about Voldemort's obvious glee at his own memory, but the truth was plain. Others were still somewhere fighting for their lives. He hadn't seen anyone except Neville. He hadn't seen Voldemort. This was not a big coincidence.

"No..." he insisted.

Sirius' face grew miserable, confusion and dread were prominent emotions on his face.

"Harry, we will deal with that later. At the moment our priority is the Tesseract. We just, we just can't...at the moment, if we think those things..."

Swallowing something hard down his throat, he nodded.

"Why do you feel though, that it was a false vision?"

He said thoughtfully, "Dunno, just a feeling. The visions are in first person, if you get the meaning, as I told you during Christmas hols. But when he sent me the vision of your being tortured, and this one, there were no sensations. Just plain...video. Movie-like."

Sirius grimaced slightly, and then exhaled tiredly. "I had hoped that this link would not work here. Occlumency practice is not what I had kept in the plans of our stay here. But we definitely can't have Voldemort making his way here via your mind."

He replied indignantly, "He won't be able to possess me. He just got his bloody ass handed out to himself under my hands. If this is Voldemort's mind reading, then Snape is a bigger threat to my mind."

"Language, Harry," Sirius chided, smiling. "In case of He-Who-Does-Not-Have-A-Nose, we can never be sure. Oh, and to bring you to speed on action...Loki's scepter had tracking charms on it, and we're now changing locations. So you can take some more rest before we get down to scouring for the Tesseract."

"No thanks," he shook his head. "Having Riddle back in my mind isn't my idea of peaceful rest."

Sirius inclined his head thoughtfully, and Harry could tell that he was trying hard not to show his concern and fear. After sitting a while in silence, Harry spoke, "Look what I did before sleeping."

He held up the knife which had been melted at the Ministry, now as good as new. Sirius exclaimed, "Merlin! How did you do this?"

He replied, "I wanted to fix it, and it changed in front of my eyes like putty. Was it another bout of accidental magic?"

"No. Accidental magic takes thick emotions to burst out like that. This, was wandless magic."

"What?!"

* * *

**Location: Hogwarts**

Albus Dumbledore gazed at the top ranked members of the Order that had gathered in his office for the meeting he'd called early in the morning. Even the sun hadn't risen yet, and it had been close to thirty hours since Harry's disappearance.

He swept his hands in an inviting gesture, and everyone sat down. He began, "Fellow members of the Order, you know of the reason behind this meeting, which is why I shall ignore the introductions today. Moving on-"

Alastor Moody grunted from his favorite place in front of the oaken doors, "Albus, before you continue, and I know of your theory, but I still say, what if the Potter boy is in that monster's clutches?"

He sighed wearily and replied, "I have firm reason to believe that Lord Voldemort has no idea about Harry's location. He believes we've hidden him somewhere for the rest of the term."

Alastor sneered, "Snape? Albus, we cannot rely on assumptions. You have yourself said many times in the past that Voldemort keeps his cards close to himself. In the case of Harry Potter, would he not like to attend to him on his own?"

A silky voice, which was undoubtedly Severus', rang in the office as he entered the room. "Oh, I must be mistaken then, for the Dark Lord just tortured some of the inner circle for their incompetence in catching the brat. He was still raging when I left him. If this was just a hidden propaganda of the Dark-"

Albus held up his hand to silence the man, who looked sourer than usual and on the verge of snapping from anger.

"One more thing. The will of Sirius is being assessed at the Ministry, which should take the usual month-long detection for dark objects-"

Someone snorted in the background, and he smiled at the members. "Which brings us to a dilemma on the headquarters' location. I'm still the secret keeper, but we cannot risk Kreacher passing on information, for now that Sirius is dead, his ownership will pass on to Narcissa Malfoy."

He paused, as the information sunk in. There were some noises of disgust and outrage, but everyone stayed silent. "So, in the time being, we will meet here, until a new headquarter is decided upon my mutual consent."

Arthur said hesitantly, "You can take the Burrow, Albus. It's small, but we can manage."

He peered over his half-moon spectacles, gazing intently at the determined face of Arthur Weasley. "Are you sure, Arthur? This might bring additional security risks, and with the children being there, Molly and the rest of your family might feel discomfort-"

"No, it's fine," he loudly interrupted. "We will be happy to help in any way possible."

He nodded. "Very well. In the full meeting next time, we will discuss this for agreement among all members. Kingsley, if you will please tell us about the efforts placed in finding Harry."

The tall man stood up, and Fawkes crooned in the background. "The DMLE has been unable to find the whereabouts of him, and his trace seems to be non-existent as far as we're concerned."

At his nod, Kingsley continued in his deep low voice, "Owls were sent out to find Harry Potter, and they were also unable to find his magical signature. They kept flying around in circles. Our associates tried to keep our silent, but some of the workers seem to suspect something. Fortunately for us, due to the entire hubbub over the change in Cabinet, no one is asking too many questions as of right now. He has simply disappeared...unless he decides to show himself we can't find him."

He inwardly ticked off another box in the favor of his 'another universe' theory. If Harry was not here, he was somewhere else. It was as simple as that, and yet conflicting.

"Well," Alastor grunted. "He might be injured or something, unable to use magic."

Remus, who had been quiet since the beginning, spoke, "But that doesn't explain the inability of owls to find him. If Albus wasn't able to find him, I doubt anyone could."

He stood up from his chair and flicked his right hand to open the cabinet holding the pensieve. The stone basin glowed with the ethereal light, the memory he wanted them to witness again lying in its depths.

He levitated the basin over to his desk, and took out his wand, prodding a silver mist inside the liquid. A tiny form of Harry revolved into existence, growing as it approached the surface of the liquid. He pointed his index finger at the red glow that had surrounded the teenager. "See, this reddish tinge around his body. The grief that wracked his body moments ago has vanished from his face. He looks peaceful, and content, in a way. This is when the green flames shroud him, when we try to get him up. You know what this means, don't you, my friends?"

Everyone muttered their approval of his theory. He asserted, "Green flames are a sign of excited barium ions. If you take time to study the Muggle periodic table you will find that barium is a silvery metal that doesn't occur in pure form. However, the inventor of Floo Powder used magic to use it for transportation and keep it in its pure state, ready to ignite and jump into. The question that arises to mind is, how did Harry do this? Accidental magic, unlikely. Apparition, even more unlikely. A form of power that manifested at that particular moment, maybe."

He noticed that everyone was hanging at his every word. The memory Harry sunk back into the depths of the Pensieve. He declared, "I need to go back to the DoM for any traces of residual magic. This needs to be done, now."

Severus frowned slightly and asked, "Can't your phoenix find him out?"

He shook his head regrettably. "Fawkes does not know where Harry is, or he refuses to go and find him. I don't know why, but that makes me curious. He has never been uncooperative, or stubborn. When I insisted that it was imperative that Harry needs to be found, he burst into flames and returned after one day. He is avoiding my questions, so unfortunately, we are on our own."

* * *

**Location: SHIELD Helicarrier**

"So, Harry. As you have decided to not get an extra ounce of sleep, I suppose we should look into the extra abilities of yours that have manifested in the past 48 hours."

Harry nodded with an air of determination. Sirius asked him to go into the center of the room they'd been given. Privacy wards were already set up by his godfather to avoid SHIELD.

Sirius barked, "Defend!"

A pale yellow burst of light burst from his wand and sped towards Harry. He raised the phoenix wand and allowed himself a moment of confusion. He didn't know anything about the spell Sirius had used. But as the jet of light neared him, time slowed down and his muscles tensed. He was ready to leap sideways and avoid the spell. But on some instinct, he cried out, "_Finite Incantatem!_"

Sirius' face was covered with shock and surprise, clearly on his choice of spell. Then things got even more astonishing. A white mist, similar to the Patronus came out of his wand and absorbed the yellow spell whole, leaving no trace in the air.

"You were right. You are indeed getting powerful..." said Sirius hoarsely. He asked, bewildered, "What?"

"Harry, that was a modified version of the tickling hex that was invented by the Marauders. It can bypass shields, and mostly guaranteed to hit unless you dodge. But that's insignificant. You were able to use a dispelling charm and just, just removed it! No one has been able to - bugger, the Founders are rumored to have been able to do that. A charm, a wide area spell, focused enough to-"

He raised his hands to stop the rambling of Sirius. He wanted to say that it was just instinctual, but he had indeed managed to cut off the magical burst completely.

"You were talking about bypassing shields?"

"Oh, yes. You should know, that we can classify spells into physical and psychic. Physicals include your average everyday spells. But a psychic spell attack uses the mind of the target against it. Examples would be the Imperius and the Cruciatus. We invented this spell...it creates an illusion in the brain, just like the cruciatus creates an illusion of pain inside the mind. Leave it. We need to test this innate ability of yours."

He nodded, interested in the ramifications of the spell if he managed to use it. A foolproof counter to magic, stopping any curse. Maybe even the AK!

"Okay, so, _Stupefy!_"

"_Finite Incantatem!_"

The red beam of light faltered under the white mist that shielded Harry, and faded into nothingness. After that they tried everything that they knew, except the Unforgivables, and he managed to focus the magic into a shield surrounding himself. Harry proudly declared, "A shield charm strong enough to reflect, no, ABSORB all incoming damage."

Sirius grinned and said, "Now, about the limit. I will send a barrage of spells at you. See if you can hold it."

The mischievous smile on his godfather's face almost convinced Harry to decline. Here was Sirius Black, with a hint of his past self back. For once, He didn't look like someone who had spent a third of his life with the Dementors.

Harry poured his magic behind the spell, and he was instantly surrounded by the white sphere of magic. Sirius took a long breath, and murmured something. This time, it was a white jet of light that sped through the air, threatening to overwhelm him. As the curse neared him, Harry was faced with a desire to bolt in face of one of the strongest magical auras he had sensed from any non-dark spell. But gritting his teeth and allowing his body to relax, he concentrated on the shield in front of him.

White met white, and his wand shook with the effort of staying still. He felt a huge pressure on his magic, and he pressed his feet hard into the floor while the two displays of magic struggled with each other. Then, the pressure was gone and his shield emerged, now thicker than before. To say that Sirius was awed by the phenomenon, would be an understatement.

Another white jet of light, and he felt the pressure again, though considerably lower than before. After a few more spells the impact didn't even register anything against Harry's wand. He allowed a smug smile to form on his face.

"Incredible. Your shield can reinforce itself from offensive spells. Damn, if someone else told me I would laugh in their face, but seeing is believing. In fact, as I'm supposed to be dead and still here, I'm ready to believe anything. That was a brilliant use for the finite spell, Harry. I must say-"

A flash of red light, and Sirius' face sprouted a lopsided grin as Harry was shocked by the sudden spell casting, but he was not going to give up so easily. Concentrating on the spell, he decided to attack the spell instead. "_Finite Incantatem!_"

A white jet of light flew out of his wand and cleaved the red one in half, growing thicker as it streaked through the air. In the end, the disarming spell had been absorbed and Sirius was hit in the chest by the white light, which enveloped his body inside its glow.

"Excellent as always, Harry. Mad-Eye would be proud."

"Why thank you," he replied, smirking. "Oh, and you are trapped in a magic resistant shield now. So don't try anything."

"Indeed."

After a few moments he could hear Sirius swear loudly. "The blasted shield grows stronger from every spell I cast. Guess the physical way is the only way now!"

Before Harry could comprehend the meaning of the statement, Sirius emerged from the white glow and rugby tackled him, tickling him hard. His wand slipped from his fingers as he laughed.

"Do you yield?" asked Sirius, panting from the efforts of holding him.

"Yes, now leave me you dog," he shot back, laughing furiously. Sirius released him and stood up. "Conclusion! Your power is indeed breath taking Harry...you have vast reserves of power, that might rival Dumbledore's."

"Oh sod off," he muttered. "I'm out of his league!"

"No," said Sirius, now sobered. "I mean what I said. With proper honing of your skills, you will reach new heights of magical strengths, Prongslet."

He blushed slightly, getting up to his feet. Releasing a weary sigh, he turned to the door and pushed a button on the wall. The giant eagle symbol covering the door split apart, revealing the corridor. He said, "C'mon, lets see what's going on with Loki and the Tesseract."

* * *

He was standing in front of a higher security door, fidgeting nervously. He wondered what had he done to deserve this. Fury had somehow reached to the conclusion that Loki was interested in him, so he sent him to interrogate him and get something out. Sirius had objected half-heartedly, but they both knew that Fury was right. Also, the key to their escape from the dimension could only be recovered by the help of Loki.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed a green button on the security panel, and entered the code Maria Hill had given him. The door opened with a hiss, and he entered the room. His first emotion was one of awe, and he couldn't help feeling impressed with the cell. He'd seen it on the feed but up close the cage seemed even more intimidating. The cage was separate from the room and held in place just by a spring system on the side. Looking to his left, he noticed a control panel, obviously for the cage. Bracing himself, he moved forward. A ramp like structure offered access to closer proximity of the holding cell.

The enemy of the peace on this world was pacing in the cell, seemingly oblivious to the environment around him. Harry nervously looked up into a security camera, as if asking for help. He knew Sirius would be in the control room watching the proceedings, and most probably was giving him a thumbs up now. He lowered his gaze to the Liesmith, opening his mouth to speak.

Loki beat him to it. "Is this an interrogation? Because if it is, I'm uninterested."

He snapped his mouth shut, and glared back. The annoyance that grew inside him served to bolster his confidence and he retorted, "I don't care. We both know why I'm here. You-"

"Ah, the arrogance of the young. You're right, young Seidhr. I know why you are here. But, to simplify things, I knew that Fury would send you. Thanks to that, we finally meet..."

He had a string of insults running in his mind, desperate to be used. But he guessed that he shouldn't aggravate a mythical godly person. With an innocent smile on his face, Loki turned to meet his gaze. He found himself staring into eyes like his own, different only in shape. The god of lies and trickery had a dangerous aura around him, which Harry didn't want to test.

"Hi...are you done? Because I'm getting awfully bored with villains running after me and trying to meet me."

"Childish though your attempt at humor was, I will share a laugh for the sake of politeness. Before you attempt to torture me, it has come to my notice that we don't know each other. I am Loki, of Asgard. And you are?"

He stared back stonily, slightly put off by the calm demeanor of Loki. He guessed thousands of years of practice had something to do with it. He replied coolly, "Why do you concern yourself with us lowly mortals, when all you want is the so-called throne of this world?"

The pale skinned god of mischief grinned. "Oh, you're right. I do want it. But I respect the abilities of everyone, magic wielder. People of your race were wiped out a long time ago. Remember this, Harry Potter-"

His eyes widened slightly at the casual mention of his unknown name.

"-Oh," Loki said, as if hurt by the look on his face. "You underestimate me, Harry. A weak privacy magic inside an aircraft, though impressive and clever, can't stop me from breaking through. Now, as I was saying, I only mean to prove myself-"

"You wish to prove yourself by murdering people?" he spluttered. "I knew you were psychotic, but really?"

Loki opened his arms wide, and smiled. "I can't be bothered to count how many times I've heard that already."

He made a face, regretting this meeting with every second that passed. He was just a boy. How could he ever hope to get information from, or trick Loki? Loki was as cool as a cucumber here, and probably was laughing inwardly at them.

"What do you want from me?" he asked in a pleasant voice, trying to change tactics.

"What do I want from you? I just want your alliance, seidhr."

After a small silence, Harry said, "Well, that was blunt."

"Let me rephrase my first question to you, Harry Potter. Where are you from?"

He replied noncommittally, "London," which was, not a lie. He really was in London, fighting at the Ministry.

Loki bared his teeth in a predatory smile, and growled, "Oh. Is that so? Then why do your comrades look at you with distrust, like they have never known you, never known about your magic, afraid of what you can do, afraid of who are you and where are you from?"

Taken aback slightly by the change in tone, he could only gape back. He can also perform mind magic, he thought worriedly. That would explain it.

"Unfortunately for you, Harry, you are correct. But not in the way you think."

And he stumbled back as a force with the intensity of a battering ram slammed into his mind, sending images flying into his vision. He knew that no one in the control room could figure out what was going on, except maybe Sirius, and it would take a few moments before even he could understand. He opened his mouth to call, but it didn't open.

Nick Fury in the SHIELD base-

Phil Coulson in a dark place, surrounded by trees-

The Department of Mysteries-

Sirius falling through the veil-

He hissed in pain, trying to counter the invasion, but failed. The memories flew past, picking up pace. He heard a distinct voice in his head, 'The mind, is a tricky thing Harry. I can see everything, and only a millisecond will pass in the outer world. You have long dreams, don't you? Consider it, a nightmare!'

He panted hard from the effort of resisting, and felt suddenly afraid. This was not an ordinary form of Legilimency. This was mind magic at its peak, and now that no one could know what was going on between then, he had to do something desperate.

Images of his childhood passed by, the round face of Vernon Dursley in most of them, which had triggered anger and confusion inside him at that point of his life.

A huge face with a beard peering over his cot, whispering kind words and sobbing-

A wand point, lit up with the unearthly green light, Lord Voldemort contemplating what would happen if he cast the curse-

Green Light-

He had enough. Rage pooled inside him, causing the images to grow a little transparent, and Loki's smirking face to come back into view. But he still didn't have control of his body. He cleared his mind by removing any kind of thought brutally, and turned it into a blank void, using his anger, ironically.

Then he pushed back like he'd done to Voldemort. '_CRUCIO!_' the voice echoed through his mind.

Loki retreated, and his breathing relaxed in the physical world. The man looked like he'd been slapped. His eyes grew distant. "Very well, I admit I was curious, but we're alike in more ways than I thought."

He groaned, but allowed a laugh to escape his lips. What was with the evil villains trying to compare themselves to him?

"Always alone. Always misguided, raised by people who were not your family, and who did not love you. Always spoiling the other sibling, making you wonder what was wrong with you. You were always an outsider. You might be loath admitting it, but you wanted to see them proud of you. That's why you tried to prove yourself, didn't you?"

Harry only gazed at the floor neutrally. He shouldn't have allowed Loki to get to him like that. He growled, "I suffered all that. You are just delusional."

SLAM

Loki had punched the glass in sheer rage, their faces now only a few inches apart from each other, separated only by a transparent layer. "Isn't that what you have told yourself all these years? That you were responsible for all that happened to you? I didn't and which is why I NEVER. DELUDE. MYSELF."

Then quick as a flash, Loki calmed down and smiled, "We at Asgard have always encouraged belief in multiverses, but no living proof till now. What if I tell you Harry, that your godfather is dead in your world, and he's only alive here because of you. The moment you step back, he'll drop dead, as Death will claim him."

The blow of those words fell on Harry like a sledgehammer and all he could do was flinch.

"I can help you, remove the deathglow around him. In return I only want your alliance, seidhr. I mean to rule this planet, not kill everyone as you think. I will even send you back with the best of my regards. We-"

"No," he said quietly.

"Sorry?"

"Pretty good job on the speech part, but no thanks. I don't scheme with lunatics."

He could have sworn Loki's eyes changed from green to blue to green, and again blue. Those blue eyes unnerved him slightly, as a sneer formed on the face of the man. "Hmm, if that is your decision, then we change the players...something to make you more comfortable, shall we?"

Somehow he didn't feel anything good was going to come out of this declaration. Loki's form changed, he grew a couple of inches shorter, eyes changing to slits, and nose disappearing on the bald face that morphed on the neck of his body.

"Is this more comfortable for you, Harry? You are not a fool, boy. You know that I can blast my way out of this cage anytime I want. Did you really think that stealing back the iridium would set my plans back? I always keep contingency plans just in case, for your information. I promise you, Harry, that you and your godfather will die, and not an easy death be the veil, but as painfully, miserably, and lowly as I can think of you wretched beings die. A promise. Don't forget it..."

He gritted his teeth, his body and magic wanting to lash out. Power was again building up inside him, and he was trying hard not to lose control. With a pop, Sirius was by his side swiftly. He guessed Sirius had panicked when Loki changed into Lord Voldemort.

The huge spring that was sparing Loki from falling thirty thousand feet down groaned, and Harry realized that his magic was flaring. He took a few deep breaths, and the vibrations of the spring and the cage stopped. Sirius looked worried, a single question on his lips. "What happened?"

What happened, indeed...he'd lived his whole life backward and bantered with a god of lies, who was apparently lying to him about the deathglow part. He simply couldn't believe that Sirius could die so easily. More importantly, he would not believe Loki. But if it really came to picking, would he choose to remain back in this world, or leave Sirius here for his safety and go back home? Breaking his chain of thoughts, he replied softly, "Later, Padfoot. Let's get out of here."

Sirius nodded and they both turned on the spot. Before disapparating, Harry saw the now-Loki's hands raised in a mock wave.

* * *

**Location: Department of Mysteries, The Ministry of Magic, London**

Albus Dumbledore descended the stone stairs that led him to the Death Chamber. It had been slightly tough for him to get down there without being seen. Being noticed by any Ministry worker would lead to questions, which he had no answer to. Even he with all his political influence could not deflect a simple question such as 'what are you doing here'. But it was not about the question, rather the questions that would arise from the question.

He removed the disillusionment charm from himself. Officially, he was in a meeting with Amelia Bones in her office, who was currently at her home and had consented to cover his presence.

There it was, the Veil of Death, looking as peaceful as always, fluttering slightly with a non-existent draught. He paced around the spot where Harry had disappeared, trying to sense the magic around it. A powerful use of pure magical energy was his only answer. Frowning slightly, he took out his wand and waved it in a pattern of swishes. Nothing. He could feel nothing, even after the strongest revealing spell, that was cast by the Elder Wand!

He sighed tiredly. There goes the last train of evidence, he mused bitterly as failure caught up to him after a long time in his life. Then, feeling a little adventurous, he decided to use a logical, yet unconventional method of searching.

Apparition and portkeys tore a small gash in the very fabric of reality, and wizards traveled through it. But it was only a small tear, and no one could open a large portal, not even with immense power and with the Elder wand. It would probably take someone with ridiculously high magical energy to open a portal out of thin air. But he had a device of his own to counter this snag.

Albus took out a silver lighter from his pocket, gazing at it somewhat desperately, hoping beyond hope that it would show an answer. He thought hard about Harry Potter, a bright boy who had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and a boy who he'd failed miserably.

"-Dumbledore. Without him we're doomed."

He was so surprised he almost dropped the Deluminator. So the charm worked, he thought with childlike excitement. He clicked it, and a blue light jumped out, instead of the usual white light that he'd stored inside for emergency usage. Smiling in satisfaction, he admired the glow that hung in front of his body. It'd been a minute since his homing spell had caught his name being used by Harry. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward into the blue light.

* * *

He found himself in a grassy plain, surrounded by trees on all sides. The sun was rising slowly in the sky, the cool morning air making the environment pleasant. He assumed that either he was near to Harry in this world, or wherever he was, since his magical signature had vanished from the earth.

He raised his wand again, muttering a string of incantations which swept across the ground. Still no sign of the trace, or Harry magical signature. He closed his eyes in disappointment, as the spell registered his location and made him aware of it. He was in New York, USA. Mentally, he called Fawkes to check a small fact.

Fawkes appeared in a burst of fire, his red-gold plumage visible even through the fire. He glared balefully at him. Albus smiled back, silently asking the reason behind the strange behavior. Fawkes didn't answer, but crooned softly with a reproving note in his normally peaceful voice. It was almost as if he were telling him to not interfere. He petted his back, and said, "Ah Fawkes. But I must find him. I simply cannot leave him on his own, wherever he is."

* * *

**Location: Hogwarts**

"Interesting."

Albus muttered to himself again as he thought about the one sentence he'd heard from the Deluminator. It'd been good to hear the boy's voice again. Harry had said that without him, they were doomed. 'We' meant that there was someone else with him, someone close, apparent from the tone of his voice.

A knock on the door broke him from his chain of thoughts. "Enter," he said.

Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger entered his office, levitating a trunk besides stood up, and produced a sweet from his pocket. "Sherbet Lemon?" he offered. Both of them declined politely.

He smiled at them and asked, 'To what do I owe the pleasure of this morning visit?"

Hermione replied a little timidly, "Professor, we-we were worried about Harry last night, and Ron said that the invisibility cloak had disappeared. I told him that the house elves might have, you know, recovered it, they do all the chores in this castle-"

The boy looked slightly alarmed as Hermione spoke, and he was amused as he saw the stirrings of SPEW in her words. He waved a hand, motioning to her to get to the point.

She blushed as she realized that she was drifting off-topic, and Ronald muttered, "Mental," but she ignored him and added, "So I did a point-me spell, and the wand pointed at his trunk. But there's nothing in the trunk. We er-thought that we must bring it to your attention."

He nodded, and replied kindly, "Understandable. You did a good job. Now let me see it."

He jabbed his wand forward as the trunk floated up in the air and opened in mid-air. Meanwhile, Albus saw that both the students were watching the Deluminator curiously, which was kept on his desk along with his magical artifacts.

He muttered another revealing spell, pouring all his magic behind it. Several magical items started glowing, but one particular package glowed the brightest. He saw the children share a knowing glance, and he took out the package from the trunk, which looked as if it'd been opened and packed again roughly.

He waved his wand, and the packaging fell apart, revealing a twin view mirror. Ideas began to form in his mind a rapid rate, ranging from cloaks to mirrors to Harry Potter. He muttered, "Hmm, so the point me spell indicated this mirror...Miss Granger, the twin of this mirror has to be with Sirius if we believe what the note says, but the master of the cloak is Harry, so this means..."

He noticed that the portraits of headmasters and headmistresses were on the edge of their chairs, and the two students were the same. "...that the other mirror is with Harry," he finished, with a hint of relief in his voice.

Their faces brightened considerably, and he nodded at them, as he allowed the mirror to rise in the air. The reflective surface glittered from the streaming sunlight in the office. Anticipation building in his body, Albus said, loud and clear, "Harry Potter."

They waited. Seconds ticked by, increasing their heart beats as the final hope that had of finding Harry Potter hovered in the air.

Then, after a painfully long fifteen seconds, a voice asked, "Professor Dumbledore?"

* * *

**End of Chapter - 4  
**

**(A/N): Firstly, one thing that I failed to clarify but one that was obvious. Sirius didn't have the mirror when he left Grimmauld Palace, and so Dumbledore was able to give it to his brother. But for the sake of the story, Sirius took it with him, hoping that Harry would contact him.**

**Secondly, Harry has the mirror in his possession presently, not Sirius. He shouted in the mirror earlier and shrunk it, keeping it in his pocket.**

**Thirdly, just wanted to remind everyone that Harry's large magical reserves are being supplied by the Tesseract. The magic he does will be on his own though, bending it to his will. I plan to make him use simple spells with high power.**

**Lastly, Dumbledore 'did not' go to Marvel Cinematic Universe. He went to the location parallel to Harry's location in the other universe. Then, registering that Harry was not there, he returned to Hogwarts.  
**

**Hmm, not much Avengers in this chapter, but plenty in the next. Thanks for reading. Tell me what you thought of this chapter. You can review, and you can also PM me with any questions and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Until next time, then.**

* * *

**Up next, on Harry Potter: A New Universe -  
**

**Finally, communication is established between the two dimensions. But before Harry and Sirius can utilize it enough, Loki goes on a rampage to sabotage the Helicarrier from inside. How would Harry cope with all the pressure?**

* * *

P.S- You know what to do. Hit that Review button. :)


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters. All rights belong to the respective owners, and no money is being made off it.

**05-06-13 Update: I won't be able to update before 23rd June. Check out my profile for details. Stay tuned.**

Note:

Thoughts- 'thought'

Spells(italic)- "_Expelliarmus!_"

Flashback/Disjoint Scene - Bold text

* * *

↓ Previously, on Harry Potter: A New Universe ↓

After Harry faces off Voldemort in his sleep and throws off an implanted idea, he and Sirius resume their training. Harry puts too much power in an instinctive Finite Incantatem and creates an anti magic shielding/offensive spell. Director Fury asks him to try to persuade Loki into divulging information, because apparently Loki is curious about the teenager. Loki calmly threatens Harry, while offering his help to him at the same time at the cost of his friendship. A brutal assault on Harry's mind leaves him shaken while Loki promises that he'd kill Harry and Sirius painfully, not unlike Voldemort. Meanwhile, Dumbledore attempts to use his Deluminator to find Harry, but finds himself in New York in the same universe. Disappointed, he returns back to Hogwarts with Fawkes advising him not to interfere. Ron and Hermione bring the mirror to Albus who is relieved on hearing their tale.

* * *

**Harry Potter: A New Universe**

**Chapter - 5**

* * *

**Location- Debriefing Room, SHIELD Helicarrier**

Harry and Sirius appeared with a small pop in the debriefing room. Harry staggered back and sat down on the cold floor. Sirius bent down quickly, worry visible in his grey eyes.

"What happened? Loki? Voldemort?"

Harry exhaled loudly. "He's very strong. A bloody Legilimens, and of the godly type. He delved deep into my mind and saw all my memories in a fraction of a second before I managed to repel him."

Sirius looked alarmed by the news and asked, "So that explains the appearance of Voldemort. But what happened to you? You were fine when I came."

Harry buried his head between his knees, shivering slightly. Then after some time, he replied softly, "It's just...that I realized, that he's too strong. He's a god, Sirius! We are out of his league, magic or not. All of us are fighting a losing battle here. We need someone like Dumbledore to even expect some resistance. Without Dumbledore, we're doomed."

Little did he know that his words had triggered a homing charm on a silver cigarette lighter, one universe away.

Sirius hugged him tightly, whispering, "Don't worry, Pup, we can hold our own very well. We just need to find the Tesseract. We're not here to fight Loki...we've Thor for that, you don't need to concern yourself with seemingly immortal beings."

If Sirius was attempting to make him smile, he didn't fail. Harry lifted his head and gave a tiny smile to his godfather, and said, "We can't just leave, Sirius. We have to help them if we can. They don't have our magic, and maybe the cube wanted us to come here, just to help the cause."

Sirius chuckled. "Does destiny even apply for multiple timelines?"

He didn't smile back this time, lost in his thoughts. He wondered whether the tables had turned, now that Loki knew everything about him. But then, maybe he would get lucky and the trickster would underestimate him. As he'd left the cell he'd noticed curiosity and confusion in those blue, no, green eyes. Fury had told them Barton normally blue eyes had begun to glow when he succumbed to mind-control.

Was Loki too under mind-control? Was it just another Imperius situation? But how could someone put such a powerful being under mind-control? He'd sooner accept the fact that Lucius Malfoy was telling the truth when he pleaded Imperius in the Wizengamot.

Laughing, he decided that he needed to prepare, not feel sorry for Loki and doubt his motives.

His moment of weakness gone, he got up with a firm decision in his mind. He would get the Tesseract from wherever Loki had hidden it, at all costs. Thinking about the people back in their world, he murmured a silent prayer to whoever was listening, asking for strength.

"Harry, should I get anyone, to help? Any health related professional here? There is one Dr. Ames here, who patched me up after the fight with Loki."

He shook his head, and replied, "No need Sirius. I'm fine, just need to be alone for a while. I think I'll go for a walk."

Sirius wanted to say something, but sighed and said, "Okay, I'll see you in the debriefing room later."

His godfather left him alone to his thoughts, and he hastily exited the room, going in the opposite direction.

* * *

**Location: Weapon Storage, SHIELD Helicarrier**

From a small window, Harry could see the early sunlight lighting up the dark corridor. The place was dark and gloomy, obviously kept away from the higher floors of the helicarrier.

He continued deeper into the narrow tunnel like corridor, thinking about Loki's plans. He was planning something huge. But why? If he were Loki his foremost plan would have been opening the portal and admitting the army inside, but apparently the trickster was more interested in SHIELD's base.

A door marked the end of his walk, and he decided to head back to the highest floor where the control room was situated, when something made him stop in his tracks. The door was slightly open, separated by an inch from the wall. Curious, he moved forward and tried opening the door.

To his surprise, the door slid into its place and embraced the wall with a dull thud. Narrowing his eyes, he pressed into the metal and heaved, but it refused to budge. A soft noise from inside the room sent him into alert mode, as he took a few steps back and raised his wand, just for precaution.

He waited, as the door split again from the wall, the metal groaning from the force being applied to it. Swiftly, a man admitted himself into the corridor, panting slightly.

"Captain?"

Steve Rogers was still in his uniform, minus the mask. He was carrying a big dangerous looking gun in his hand, and seemed relieved to find him in the corridor. Harry pushed his magic forward, and could feel the tension inside him.

"Harry...so it was you who closed the door. I was worried someone else might be - "

"Steve, what happened? Why are you carrying this thing?"

Flushing mildly, Steve muttered, "Turns out the director has kept many things from us. Stark was right. These people intend to use the cube for making weapons like this. Fury has got a lot to answer for. Could you please, lower that?"

Harry had forgotten to lower his wand, which he did now, apologizing quietly as the news sunk in his mind. He said, "What kind of weapons, Steve?"

"You can't imagine the power level of these things. These are only prototypes, and with the energy of the Tesseract, any weapons could have the potential to - I don't know how this affects our mission, Harry, but this is certainly something we need to know about SHIELD. Are they just another power hungry bunch of morons? Because if they are, I need to talk to Thor. He must take the cube back to Asgard as soon as possible. I don't want the Tesseract staying on Earth a minute after we find it."

Nodding, he fell into line along with Steve as they both made their way back. Harry was impressed. When Steve spoke, he had the talent to inspire and encourage, making people listen. The things he'd been told about Captain America were not enough by a mile to emphasize the personality of the man out of time. He could tell Sirius was also impressed when Cap threw off the Imperius like it was nothing the previous day.

"Y'know, Harry, when I first saw you, I sensed a feeling of familiarity with you. I don't know how to explain it, but I got this...thought that I should trust you guys, almost as if we're not strangers at all."

Not knowing how to respond, Harry mumbled, "Er, thank you, I guess. Everyone is still skeptical of us, and we're telling the truth, not just offering assistance until the Tesseract is found and then planning to get away with it."

Steve chuckled and said, "That's a good one. Where did you get the idea anyone of us was thinking that?"

Harry grinned back. "Don't get me started. I don't want to imagine what everyone's reaction was, on hearing our tale."

"You got a point there," said Steve, nodding sagely.

Just then, Harry's pocket grew warm and something vibrated inside. Frozen with shock, he mechanically put a hand inside and pulled a miniature version of the two-way mirror outside.

Ahead of him, Steve stopped in his tracks too. "What happened?"

"Uh, you go without me. I'll just, come in a few minutes."

Thankfully, he didn't ask any questions and continued on his way, after nodding at him.

Harry took out his wand, and tapped it on the small mirror. "_Engorgio!_"

The beautifully engraved mirror enlarged on Harry's palms in a flash, but it reflected not his own face, but the ancient face of his headmaster. Deep down in his mind, he was expecting someone to call him even when he was assured that the mirror wouldn't work across dimensions. To say the least, it was like everything had been taken care of, and now they could go back home.

"Professor Dumbledore?"

Harry's hands were shaking with excitement, as he waited for a reply. This was not just an illusion, he was sure of it. But the image of Dumbledore's face was unmoving, and remained still. For a moment, an urge to break the mirror, to try and put his hands through the silver and grab the throat of the old man bubbled inside him, but he concentrated hard as he made his mind free of any emotion and swatted the alien presence aside.

"Yes, Harry. It is indeed me, and believe me when I say I never expected to be in contact with you in such a fashion, and in such circumstances."

The image had started moving, and Harry assumed that it required voice inputs at both end to open the connection. The headmaster was smiling, and Harry noticed that he was wearing his trademark purple robes, but he was not holding the mirror in his hand. He recognized the chair that Dumbledore occupied and stared hungrily into the mirror, wanting to enter it and look around the office, pet Fawkes on its head and be comfortable on the chair which he'd occupied many times in the past.

As his nose touched the mirror he pulled back in disappointment, calming himself hastily. His present focus should have been on asking for help, not grin like a fool.

"Professor, thank God you found that mirror! You won't believe it, all the stuff that's happening! Here we-"

Dumbledore put up a hand, and interrupted him gently, "I understand my boy, but first things first. Time is of essence, and every minute of your absence is giving Voldemort an upper hand in this war. I have tried my best to quell the rumors that have sprung up in the Wizarding World after you've been not seen by anyone for over thirty-six hours, but-"

"Rumors?"

"You must comprehend, my dear boy, that no one has seen you after your OWL examination in the school. All they have is my word, and many rumors have sprung up regarding your disappearance. But first, an explanation perhaps, of your adventures?"

Mentally slapping himself, he nodded furiously. "Oh yes, sorry, Professor. But I don't know how to begin explaining...you see, this is rather, shocking."

Dumbledore simply said, "The beginning, is the best place to start in my honest opinion, though a short detail about your location should be enough. We need to get you back as soon as possible, and then we can converse at length about your exploits."

Harry replied dejectedly, "It's not that easy, Professor. After the Department of Mysteries, we found ourselves outside New York, and furthermore, we found that it was many years in the future that we'd jumped into. To add cherry to the top, this is not even the future, this is a different world. A different universe. And there is a war going on here too!"

He waited, expecting some kind of surprise but when he looked into those electric blue irises he saw a knowing look. He blurted, " You know this already?"

"I suspected this, Harry. I had reason to believe you were alive, and because your magical signature had simply vanished from this world, there was only one explanation, one which went beyond any reasoning. Now, as you're telling me this, I can only hold my head high with pride that you have managed to yet again do something unthinkable. You have crossed realities, Harry."

Blushing slightly, Harry shrugged his shoulders. But a moment later his happiness evaporated in the air as he noticed that Dumbledore was once again looking somewhere in space, not meeting his eyes. He wanted to snap at him, ask him the reason behind his behavior, but he carefully kept himself neutral.

Taking a deep breath, he began the astonishing tale of the universe where wizards didn't exist, and there were superheroes among Muggles. A universe where Norse gods were real, and one of them intended to rule the Earth...

When he mentioned Sirius, Dumbledore sat up in his chair, eyes alert and posture tense.

"Alive?"

"Yes, sir.

"Hmm, I would normally say that you can't reawaken the dead, Harry. But since Sirius didn't exactly - die, I assume you pulled his essence from the unknown realm behind the veil. Oh, I apologize, for I forgot that your friends are here too, waiting to jump at the mirror and snatch it. Give them a token of reassurance", Dumbledore finished chuckling softly.

Immediately his face blew into a lop-sided grin. "Oh. How are they doing? Ron? Hermione, and all the others? Are they here?"

"Both of them are here, my boy, and all of your friends are perfectly fine; just slightly worn off by the ordeal. In fact, they deserve the credit of finding the mirror and bringing it to my attention."

The image in the mirror rotated and he found himself looking into the joyous faces of his two best friends. Hermione beamed at him. "Finally! Now find a way back home quickly, or I'm going to hex you into oblivion. You just don't stop doing the unthinkable, don't you?"

He grinned as Ron coughed something that sounded like 'barking mad', and replied, "The first thing you say to me after I get lost Mione, is a reprimand. Ron! Doing good, mate?"

Ron grinned back and replied, "She's been driving me nuts with speculations on your location. Come back soon, Harry."

He nodded, "I will. I swear I'll find a way back."

Before he could say anything, the image rotated again, and Harry realized that Dumbledore was levitating the mirror to his front.

"Continue, Harry."

* * *

**Location: Laboratory #2, SHIELD Helicarrier**

Sirius walked into the laboratory with growing anticipation as he heard raised voices from inside. He'd spent the most part of the morning with Agent Coulson, and he found out that he was a nice bloke, with all kinds of stories. In turn, he had told him stories of his life, but he doubted any of them registered in the agent's mind completely except the tales of pranks. So now, when the door slid open dramatically, all he could think of was 'What happened?'

"I'm sorry Nick. What were you lying?"

"I was wrong Director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

He was surprised to see a scowl etched on the usually peaceful face of Steve Rogers as he glared at the Director of SHIELD, who was being stared at by three pair of mistrustful eyes. Tony had a triumphant smirk on his face, while Bruce looked like he'd swallowed something bitter.

"Oi, what's going on?" he interjected rather loudly.

The four of them snapped their attention to him, and Steve dropped his scowl, which was replaced by a ill-concealed grimace. He muttered, "Here we are, suspecting people who we know nothing about, when we are being lied to by our own people."

Sirius blinked back, inclining his head slightly. "Sorry, but what is all this about?"

"Nothing", Tony sneered, "Just the usual big bad director hiding a 'small' detail from us about the Tesseract project. A project designed to create weapons, not unlimited sustainable energy."

It was then that he noticed a big ugly gun like thing on the platform nearest to the door, its metal shining in the brightly lit room. Comprehension settling into his mind, he spluttered, "Really? All this time, when you said you were just going to use it for generating power, and that you'd help us harness this power to send us back, it was just a goddamn lie? You know, this doesn't even surprise me somehow - power! And more power! That's your goal, that's the filthy goal of everyone isn't it? And being the director of a secret world-"

Nick Fury was fuming by this point and he snapped, "Don't get me started Black! You expect me to believe you? When the only thing you have done in the entire time you've been here is arouse suspicion? Just for one moment I was ready to believe your preposterous claims, and protected you from any political interference, and you go on disabling our security cameras, doing God knows what-"

"I told you already, Director. Our magic interferes with your technology, causing any device to go haywire around any spells. But if you ask me, I thought we had a right to privacy, and if you go planting those spy things around, we WON'T be having any of that."

By then, Natasha had joined their company, and Thor had followed soon after. To say the least, he was pretty annoyed by the situation and Sirius could see why. If any Muggle got hold of a magical artifact and tried to use it for their selfish purposes, even their folks would retaliate.

"GENTLEMEN, Please CALM down, and hear me out for a moment."

Everyone fell silent, as Nick Fury continued in a tired voice, "It's true. We intended to make weapons from the Tesseract project, which was a part of Phase 2 research going on in our base at New York. Needless to say, after Loki arrived, the entire place got leveled by a backlash from the cube's cosmic energy. But the entire purpose of this operation, was to get ready. Prepared, to at least stand a chance in any kind of encounter that we might have with forces beyond our control."

Everyone was listening intently, some with a frown on their faces, and some with a doubtful expression. Sirius kept himself from scowling and just grimaced at the director.

"This all started four years ago, when Tony was kidnapped. Until then, SHIELD had only to deal with terrorist groups like AIM and the HYDRA, and sometimes with the occasional politics. The mutants were a different story, though they were mostly hidden and with a rare case of any mishap. The world saw a hero named Iron Man rise out of the shadows to protect the masses, and we waited before contacting Tony. But that was just the beginning. Individuals with massive power at their disposal began to pop all across the world like mushrooms after a rainy day. Many scientists across the world were trying since decades to develop the super soldier serum that gave Steve his powers, and some succeeded, though, with unpleasant circumstances."

Here Nick Fury threw a glance in Bruce Banner's direction, while Sirius nodded. Tony just looked bored beyond measure.

"The army tried to hunt the Hulk, and we had to step in, but that was long after Tony had to deal with Whiplash and all the HAMMER fiasco. We had contacted him, placed our people inside Stark Enterprises, managed to get his approval as a consultant...Around that time, Steve Rogers was found in the ice along with his shield, which again caused ripples in the political domain. With Thor's hammer being found soon after, and the Destroyer razing a small town effortlessly, we decided to revive the old idea of the Avengers Initiative. It was a desperate idea, one which involved getting together selected individuals, who could fight the battle that we never could, who had the power to maintain peace on the planet, and who could give hope to the masses in times of danger. It was scrapped soon after, the mutants going into seclusion and a period of peace descending on all the countries. We didn't need the heroes, so we forgot about them. But now, after the potential of the cube was revealed, we saw - I saw another opportunity to get the controls back to us."

Thor replied gravely, "That's all well and good, Director. But the Tesseract belongs on Asgard. You cannot justify your actions with your good intentions towards your fellow human beings. Weapons can never be kept idle, As long as there are weapons, there will be battles."

Fury raised his voice, ignoring Thor completely, who looked amused by that. "The entire concept of Phase Two was to give humanity tools to protect themselves. You can sit in your thrones at Asgard and spout peaceful nonsense, Thor, but the truth is that even if we stop fighting among ourselves, extra-terrestrial forces would wipe us out before we can take the fight to them. (sigh) Phase Two was not ready, when Loki appeared from the portal. SHIELD suffered major setbacks in it by the attack, and our hand was forced. We had to restart the Avengers Initiative. The world is filling up with powerful individuals, those who can't be controlled. I'm not going to sit here while chaos reigns on the planet. If wizards come out of the blue on Earth supposedly from a different universe, so be it. You are free to hold your own opinions, but the truth is; I am just protecting the innocents from a fate worse than death."

Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but his words hadn't left the throat when the entire lab was bathed in a red light and alarms blared in the hallway outside, which was followed by a silence so still that Sirius' mind was filled with unpleasant thoughts of Loki escaping and everyone on the Helicarrier dead, except for them. Then he shook his head, forcing himself to think logically. Harry was out there, did anything...

Fury swore loudly and barked something on his communicator. Then he straightened up, his face set in stone. "We are under attack. Engine Four has been bombed. Stark - "

"I'm on it."

"Rogers, there are intruders inside the ship. Cut them off before they get deeper in the base."

Steve dashed out of the room without saying a word. Sirius turned to Bruce and asked, "Where did his disobedience movement go?"

Bruce simply said, "A soldier follows orders, Sirius."

Fury yelled, "Black, get to the control room, do your force field, shield, whatever. Save the main frame systems at all costs. Coulson, seal off the detention level and everything below!"

* * *

After Harry finished recounting his tale, Dumbledore sat back in his chair, eyes closed peacefully and his fingers interlocked together. Harry waited, still on the same corridor where Steve had left him. He glanced around occasionally to be sure that no one was approaching.

Finally, Dumbledore murmured, "Intriguing."

Harry snorted. That was it? One word to denote his plight?

He asked, "Sir, can't Fawkes try to come here? He's after all, a higher magical being?" It was a bit too optimistic on his part, but he had to be so.

"That's the second time someone has asked me this, Harry. You might be interested to note that the first person was Professor Snape. Well - "

Snape concerned about his safe return and offering ideas? The world was ending the next day! He was thinking that Snape would have started distributing sweets in the Great Hall by that time.

"- which leaves us with two choices."

He nodded, paying his utmost attention to the mirror now. "As you said, Harry, this Tesseract seems to be an object of massive importance, and your safest way of being sure of return will lie with the hope that you actually get it back from Loki, and use it to reverse the spell and tear a hole in the space-time fabric."

"That was out first course of action, Professor. It's the only thing that is keeping us going. Otherwise, we would have gone ballistic with the fear of getting stuck here forever."

The headmaster smiled, and said, "I think there is no need of concerning yourself with that, Harry. If you went there, you can obviously come back. Plain and simple. The second course of action would be for you to attempt and force open a portal, with the help of Sirius. I'll not give you false hope, my boy. No one has ever managed to open a cross dimensional portal, because they didn't have enough power. But, as you are still alive after doing it once, you can try the second alternative. To be honest, I thought that since you left on 18th June, you would have appeared back then only, theoretically."

Shocked to his core, he croaked, "What does that mean?"

"Either you never came back, or you have returned and are refusing to show yourself."

Harry frowned, and replied, "I guess there is a but coming..."

"Yes. BUT, as we're conversing with the mirror, and it's the morning of 20th June here, I think we can safely assume that both universes have been connected, linked together. As of now, both are moving into the future at a rate of one second per second. Does that make sense?"

"Huh? Yes, maybe a little."

"Good. Now, consider two planes of a pair of universes, not unlike pages in a book. Consider, for a moment, that you drive a pin in one page, that tears a hole into the next page too. Here, you have a similar situation. Both the timelines are connected by links, or bridges. You can use these links to come back, Harry, if you manage to open a portal with your power, or the Tesseract's. That would be rather insanely lucky for you and Sirius, because infinite multiverses, universes; whatever you wish to call them, exist, with no way of determining where to go. But in your case, we have bridges! The two mirrors are connected. You said that you have the map, which means there is a bridge to Hogwarts as well. The bad part, is the connection between your scar and Voldemort..."

As the ramifications of the statement hit home, Harry spluttered, "Surely not? Do you mean - "

"Yes, there is a bridge to Voldemort from your location too, which is why the Tesseract becomes so important, Harry. You need to focus on one bridge. Two of the three bridges you have are at Hogwarts, so you have a sixty-seven percent chance of opening a portal to favorable locations. But if Voldemort senses you, he will try to pull you through the connection, and the portal might open in his stronghold."

He continued to stare blindly into the mirror, at the face of Albus Dumbledore. After a while, after he gathered himself enough, he asked, "What should I do? You can't help us, that much is sure. Do you think I might be able to open a portal?"

Harry could swear he'd never seen those eyes looking sharper. The aged headmaster briskly replied, "You're forgetting, or perhaps thought convenient to forget, that you've already opened a portal. That's how you found yourself in the current predicament. I sincerely hope that you can do that again. Moreover, you were wrong in supposing that I would not be able to help you, Harry. I will do everything in my power to offer support at this end, for a door will always have entrances on both sides. A simple runic circle, which could be used to find out the intricate pattern of your magical signature should allow me to pull you into a sure-shot safe place. To be short, you get the cube, open a portal, and I will pull you through."

Harry nodded mutely, the huge weight of the task settling on his shoulders. There was no rescue. He had to rescue himself and Sirius together. Why? How could he, with his mediocre magical talent as Snape put it, open a portal, something that no one had managed to do in living memory?

He wanted Dumbledore to do the job. He wanted, more than anything else, to be relieved of all the burden. But no, the pile kept increasing. First Loki, then the cube, and now the portal. But as his shoulders drooped in resignation, alarms screeched in the hallway, eerily red lights blinking and flashing for all they were worth.

He whispered, "Something has happened. I'll get Sirius and talk to you later."

Dumbledore nodded, and said, "One more thing Harry. There is an important matter of the time factor. Tomorrow is the summer solstice here, and the most favorable time for carrying out such complex magic. This is a good thing for us, for you can return soon, but remember - if you don't get the cube back before tomorrow, any possibility of help from this world will weaken with every passing day. Even I won't be able to help you then. So hurry, my boy."

Another nod. He could do nothing more with every passing minute. As he raised his hand to wipe the image away, the ancient wizard said, "I wish you luck, Harry..."

The image dissolved and was replaced by his own pale face staring back. Forcing himself to snap out of inaction, he shrunk the mirror and stuffed it inside his pocket, before disapparating.

* * *

Harry almost smiled at the look on Sirius' face when he told him about the mirror. To say the least, it was comical beyond anything Harry had seen so far.

"Come again?"

"Professor Dumbledore told me to find the cube as soon as possible, because after tomorrow, summer solstice or some reason, he won't be able to help us too much, and we'd be left with a sixty-seven percent chance of safely making back, or a thirty-three percent chance of making back, but in Voldemort's kitchen."

Talking about problems certainly helped. As Harry stood there talking lightly with his godfather, he could already feel the tension ease away, replaced by slight eagerness and the usual nervousness.

Sirius frowned, and replied, "Great. Just great. Now listen, we can deal with that later. Bruce will find us the cube. But first, there is a tiny problem out there."

It was his turn to frown now. He muttered, "Tiny?"

"Yes. Not so surprisingly, we forgot that the enemy had turned Selvig. And so, they tracked us by tracking the mighty stick of Loki. My efforts on concealing the homing spell didn't work at all."

"So...why were the alarms ringing? Are we under attack?"

"Uh, yes. There are intruders on the Helicarrier."

"And you were planning on telling me this when?" he demanded.

Sirius ignored him. "I'm going to the control room to secure the defenses. whatever the hell that means. You stay here, and this time, don't leap into danger! I repeat, don't go anywhere. None of the intruders are mind controlled...they're all enemies, Harry. We can take care of them."

"Fine", he murmured, at which Sirius gave him a strange look, surprised by his lack of outburst.

"Great. So...I'll meet you as soon as everything gets taken care of. Be safe."

A soft pop, and Sirius was gone. Harry had noticed that he was tensed and distracted, which was why he'd not pushed him about his obedience. But he was not going to sit idle in the debriefing room while unknown intruders were prowling the Helicarrier. He was sure Loki would try something, and he would be there to stop just that. He'd promised to stay away from the fight, and he would keep that promise, but there was no way he was going to not keep an eye out for any disturbance at the lowest level.

He disapparated, appearing in the narrow corridor that constituted the highest security prison cell at the end of its length. The lights flickered in response to his magic, reminding him that he couldn't use heavy magic on the ship. The result would be catastrophic; everything going haywire, SHIELD blaming them for sabotaging the security. Little did he know that Fury had already done that part.

As he took a step forward, the floor shook so hard that he couldn't help but throw himself to the floor and curl himself into a ball to avoid any damage. He remembered that the prison cells were built away from the central layout of the ship, cut off from the higher levels for added security, but close to the labs. He waited as the tremors subsided, and there was a dull thud exactly below him. Not wanting to stay on the mercy of the floor, he trudged forward carefully, watchful eyes alert for any source of movement. The lights dimmed, causing his paranoia to increase more than usual.

A weak wrenching sound made his heart leap to his throat. The metal beneath his soles creaked and groaned, shifting in place as something slammed on the floor a few feet away from him, forming an ugly distorted mound to rise in the metallic surface. He backed away, looking around desperately for any kind of clue for what was happening. Then, he let out a soft oh as the extent of his stupidity hit him hard. He disapparated again.

This time, he found himself one floor above the detention section. To his relief, which soon turned into dismay, it was an open area. Just too open. He peered over the edge of the railing to his left, and he couldn't see anything except metal and darkness.

There was an entire cavern like echo to the place. Bridges crisscrossed around, surrounded by machinery and leading into the maze of SHIELD sections. He hadn't comprehended the size of the Helicarrier to be that large, but now he was sorely impressed. He dashed to the door at the end of his bridge, his feet making loud noises on the floor.

He swore in his mind for his stupidity of running into places which he didn't have a clue of. He should have taken a map at least - excuse me Director, do you have a map of this place? Nah, too risky. Never tickle a sleeping dragon. Too fitting a motto here.

He extended his hand to open the door, when a group of loud steps on the other side him freeze. The door opened slowly, and a barrel of a gun came out. Another brilliant thing he'd forgotten. There were people with guns loose on the place and he was doing recon in the field! Brilliant.

He leapt back as the person at the other end shouted something incoherent.

"_Protego!_"

An invisible shield expanded in mid-air just before a bullet ricocheted off it and hit the railing to his left. He hastily raised his wand and fired a stunner. The man who had entered the room glowed red before he was thrown away, the door closing itself with a hiss.

Harry knew that the stunner hadn't worked, because he knew there would have been a bullet proof vest, coupled with many solid gear that resisted magic very well in their world too. Someone shouted outside, and a man barreled through the doorway as soon as the gateway opened again, and Harry had been far too caught up in his thoughts to retaliate swiftly, but he reflexively enunciated, "_Expelliarmus!_"

A deadly looking rifle flew out of the hands of the man, who gaped at him from behind his helmet's visor. The rifle dropped into the depths of the Helicarrier below as the man gnashed his teeth angrily and charged. Harry raised his wand and shouted, "_Expecto Patronum!_"

A silver stag erupted from his wand and met the man head on, but its ethereal body passed through the muscular frame as the man didn't even slow down. In his efforts of focusing, Harry had been forced to drop the shield and he registered the words of Sirius, spoken a million years ago.

"None of the intruders are mind controlled...they're all enemies..."

A split second pause of recognition flitted in his brain, as the huge body of the man crashed into him and they both went down, with a lot of punching on his part. He was trapped under the body weight of the man who was physically more powerful than him. But the real trouble started when the man closed his gloved fingers around his neck, and began applying pressure. He pulled at the body of the attacker, but wasn't able to relieve the pressure. He slapped, kicked, punched, but to no avail.

White dots swam in front of his eyes as they both struggled. It had been just a few seconds but Harry was already losing consciousness...the grip was just too strong for his body. Gulping hard, he wiggled under the torso of his captor as he cradled the wand in his hands. Glaring spitefully, he weakly pushed the tip of it into the man's abdomen, and thought of a revulsion jinx, but his anger came in the form of, "R - _Reducto!_"

The grip on his throat loosened as the door in front of them got splattered with something he didn't want to know. He pushed the man off him, and got up shakily,, taking huge gulps of precious air and massaging his throat. He stared down on his attacker, whose lifeless body laid on the floor in a pool of blood. His eyes rolled in their sockets, glaring at him hatefully as life drained out of him. Harry knew he was most probably covered in blood too. There was a huge hole where the stomach should have been. He'd obviously overpowered the curse.

His knees wobbled as his stomach protested to empty its contents, but he forced himself to stay strong.

Harry shut his eyes, felling guilty of willingly killing a man. But it had been self-defense, right...His arguments sounded feeble even to himself. There was a lot he could have done. Full body bind, revulsion, anything. But no. He had gone and used the Reductor curse.

He opened the door, trying not to pay attention to the things it was stained with. Once outside, he jolted into action as he saw another man, the one he'd earlier tried to stun. He was lying on the floor, moving feebly. His armor had taken most of the impact, but it was still enough to cause disorientation. He raised his wand, pointing it at the head, whispering, "_Petrificus Totalus!_"

He left the place without throwing a glance back. He needed to find another way to Loki's cell. After he'd only passed two corridors, he found himself face to face with another man with a gun. He whipped his wand out, and the man exclaimed, "Whoa, calm down Harry. It's me."

His brain registered the face of Phil Coulson, and he lowered his wand. The agent's gaze traveled south, and he started.

"Jesus Christ! What happened to you?"

He avoided the shocked gaze of the man and muttered, "Intruders."

"Are you - are you injured? Let me see."

He waved a hand impatiently. "I'm fine, Mr. Coulson. I was going to check up on Loki. I feel he's going to pull off something here."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked uncertainly.

"Perfectly fine."

"Hmm, I was just going to do that too. Just, let me pick up something, and then we can go."

He insisted, "Mr. Coulson, he wields magic. I would be a better choice for this, sir."

The man smiled, pushing some buttons on a cabinet in front of them. "It's my job, Harry."

He nodded uncertainly. "If you're sure..."

Then the agent took out a monstrosity from inside the cabinet. A thick barreled and long weapon, with thin beams of liquid fire running around its length was in the skilful hands of Coulson. He spluttered, "What is that thing?"

"A new toy. Something for the likes of Loki."

He grinned after a long time in the day. "You have to let me use it once."

"Sure, but after I use it on anyone who crosses our path."

* * *

**Location: The Hulk Protection Cell, Detention Section, SHIELD Helicarrier**

"Are you ever, not going to fall for that?"

Both of them tensed on hearing the silky tone of Loki's voice from inside the prison chamber. Coulson ran his fingers quickly through access pads, and looked into the retinal scanner, which confirmed his identity.

They stepped inside, weapons raised, a magical stick and a huge gun. A man stood guarding the pathway, but he had his back turned to them. To his horror, it was not Loki in the cell, but his brother.

"The humans think us immortal. Shall we test that?"

Loki extended a pale hand towards the panel, obviously aiming to drop Thor thirty thousand feet below, but Coulson took aim and fired.

There was a horrible sound as the weapon powered up and shot the thickest jet of bright orange light he'd ever seen rammed into Loki's frame, who was lifted up in the air and slammed into the fall about twenty feet away.

The guard turned and raised a M16, but Harry was quicker. "_Expulso!_"

Hesitant to kill the enemy outright, he jabbed his wand at the ground and a blue light struck it, causing the floor to explode outward and the man was thrown away like a rag doll.

Coulson muttered, "Wow..."

He grinned back as they advanced, Harry keeping an eye out for Loki which was difficult because the safety alarms had been activated by his show of magic and Loki was - out of sight; apparently the big gun was too damn powerful.

Meanwhile, Coulson rushed to the control panel to get Thor out. Harry trained his wand at the place where Loki had disappeared, a shield charm on his lips just in case Loki came around the corner of the cage. The agent swiped on the screen and raised his hand to push a green button, when out of a sudden Loki appeared besides him and grabbed his wrist. He smiled. "Now, now. That wouldn't be very nice, would it?"

Harry was already moving forward swiftly as he cried, "_Relashio!_"

There was a flash of purple, and Loki was knocked away from Coulson, and for a moment, Harry relaxed a bit. That turned out to be a fool's error. Loki turned and landed cat-like on his feet. He sneered and raised his right palm, stretching it forward.

A burst of magic hit where Harry's head had been a second ago. He dived away from the approaching spells, completely forgetting about raising a magical shield. When he did remember, he ignored the urge as he didn't have the courage to risk it and get his shield and body shattered by the unknown power behind those attacks.

Coulson grabbed his gun, raising it and firing again. This time, it passed through Loki's body without even touching him. For a second, both Harry and the agent gaped at the trickster, unable to comprehend what happened. Thor bellowed inside the cage, "DEFEND. IT IS AN ILLUSION."

Something came up behind Harry's shoulder and he ducked, allowing a deadly sphere of white light to ram into the wall. He whipped around as another Loki moved with lightning speed.

"_IMPEDIMENTA!_"

The Liesmith was forced by magic to stop within a foot of Harry's chest, and he growled with irritation.

"_Lumos!_" he shouted, forcing all power inside the spell and leaping away from his opponent at the same time, expecting the spell to blind Loki. Instead, a bright red light came out of his wand and seared across the outstretched hand of Loki.

A laser. He'd converted a simple Lumos into a laser! Was nothing going to be normal from now on? Loki was mostly unaffected by the spell, but he seemed very annoyed now. His cool attitude was gone, replaced by a touch of desperation and anger.

Coulson was fighting the militant close to the control panel, who was now perfectly conscious and raging hard. The moment Loki broke the Impediment jinx, Harry said, "_Petrificus Totalus!_"

The trickster simply swatted it aside by his hand, looking to go for the kill now. He closed his fist, which shone with a blue light. Harry shielded his eyes, and when the light subsided, Loki's scepter was gripped in his palm.

"Expelliar- hey"

His wand flew out of his grasp and cluttered on the floor, while Loki closed the gap between them with frightening ferocity. He reflexively leapt back, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to get away in time. The blade was coming for his neck, and there was nothing he could do. Power bubbled inside him, but he didn't have time to focus it outwards. Time slowed down...he closed his eyes.

CLANG

He'd opened his eyes when he heard the sound and as he hit the floor, he saw that Loki's scepter had been wrenched out of his hands and it was pressed between a hammer and the floor. The hammer was Mjölnir, and it vibrated, not allowing the scepter to escape.

Lying on the ground, he turned his head to witness a huge hole in the transparent wall of the cage. He had enough time to meet Thor's eyes, before the metal shaft groaned behind him and the cage disappeared from his gaze, into the chasm like hole below. "_Accio Thor_", he shouted desperately, but he didn't have enough power to perform such a powerful summoning with his wand, let alone wandless.

He jumped back to his feet and summoned his wand back wandlessly to his great delight and surprise, while Loki followed his every movement a few feet from his place.

"That was impressive, Harry. Amusing though it was, this must end now."

A large mist formed in the room as dozens of Lokis shimmered into existence all over the place. Harry jabbed his wand in the direction where he'd seen the real one, but he was long gone, mixed into the crowd of illusions.

Three Lokis forced the gun out of Coulson's hand and held him down. A Loki in the crowd called, "Drop the wand, mortal. NOW!"

He lowered his wand, but didn't drop it. Slowly, all the illusions began to laugh, a soft, maniacal laugh, while the militant watched the proceedings with emotionless eyes.

"You know that you cannot win, Harry. Even if you manage to escape, your friend won't."

He was right, Harry thought bitterly. There was nothing he could do. He could not try to apparate, because the moment he appeared close to Coulson, one of the illusions would tear him apart. He needed a distraction badly. Sirius, Captain, Iron Man, anyone! He was helpless once again in his life, and he didn't like it a bit.

A center forward Loki met his face, and smiled like a mother to a naughty child. "The mortal idea of déjà vu looks appealing to me, Harry. Don't you think so?"

He said nothing. He just glared back coldly.

Loki turned to the militant standing aside, who was holding a gun to Coulson's head. Brown eyes met green, and uneasiness was visible in both.

The Liesmith flashed a white grin in Harry's direction, and ordered the militant, "Kill the spare!"

* * *

End of Chapter - 5

(A/N): Ohh cliffhanger! This chapter was very difficult to write. I hate the explanation parts in AU stories although they are an integral part of the plot. I hope I've managed to do something new in the cross dimensional travel concept. This is the longest chapter so far, with 8.5k+ words. Please ignore the small spelling mistakes, which I'll correct while re-editing the chapter. But if you find a big enough mistake, please tell me.

Just for the info, the lowest floor was just above the Hangar, where the Hulk was rampaging everything in his path, hence the shockwaves. The explosion inside the lab took place after a sufficient margin of time, as without Hawkeye, no one could plant a bomb there without entering the SHIELD facilities.

Voldemort hasn't tried to possess Harry and escape, so Dumbledore still feels that he should avoid meeting the gaze of Harry, but most of you already knew that.

To A. V. Jackson, who suggested, "Professor Dumbledore! It's ridiculous! Even in an alternate universe I'm smack dab in the middle of a war!"

That would be really funny, especially if he starts whining about wars everywhere and refuses to fight, like he does in many of the fanfics. :)

Tell me what you thought of this chapter. You can PM me with any questions and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Like always, review if you enjoyed it and would like to offer any suggestion or comment. Until next time, then.

* * *

Next up, on Harry Potter: A New Universe -

**Location: Hangar, SHIELD Helicarrier, Twenty Minutes Ago**

Sirius bellowed, "_Oppungo!_"

About a dozen conjured boulders bombarded the green monstrosity, but it didn't slow down a bit. The Hulk got angrier and roared while charging down the Hangar towards them. Thor waved his hammer like a lasso and threw it with all his might. Hulk caught it in his palm and was pulled away by the force of it. When the hammer fell to the ground, Hulk tried to lift it up and use it against them, but failed. Trying to gain advantage of the distraction, Sirius performed a cheering charm on him, which had no effect except for getting the Hulk to grin like a fool. Damn Fury who suggested anger management!

Thor tried to get his hands around the thick green neck, but Hulk threw him away easily. He picked up the rocks which he'd conjured and hurled them, aiming for him. Sirius put up shield charms, and when they broke, he apparated away. Things were definitely not looking good.

* * *

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